Nathaniel Erskine-Smith

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (born June 15, 1984) is a Canadian politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for Beaches—East York from 2015 to 2026. A member of the Liberal Party, Erskine-Smith served as Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities from December 2024 to May 2025.

Before entering politics, he was a commercial litigation lawyer. Also a member of the provincial Ontario Liberal Party, Erskine-Smith was the runner-up in the party's 2023 leadership election as well as a prospective candidate in the upcoming 2026 race. However, in May 2026, he was unsuccessful in seeking the party's nomination for the Scarborough Southwest provincial by-election and appealed the nomination due to allegations of irregularities. Erskine-Smith later resigned from Parliament on July 7, 2026.

On August 18, 2026, Erskine-Smith announced that he was a candidate for Toronto City Councillor in Ward 19 Beaches—East York in the 2026 Toronto municipal election.

Early life and education Erskine-Smith was born on June 15, 1984, in Toronto, Ontario, and attended Bowmore Elementary School and Malvern Collegiate. His parents, Sara Erskine and Lawrence Smith, were public school teachers. He has a brother.

Erskine-Smith attended Queen's University, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics in 2007 before completing law school in 2010. While a student at Queen's, Erskine-Smith attempted to start a business selling panini sandwiches. His experience dealing with bureaucracy led him to run unsuccessfully for city council for the Sydenham District in Kingston, Ontario, in the 2006 municipal elections, coming in third despite being endorsed by the Whig-Standard and Queen’s Journal. Erskine-Smith later described his attempt to Althia Raj as "naive", saying that he knocked on no doors and spent his time researching local issues. He focused on the evolution of section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with references to assisted dying, prostitution and marijuana.

Legal career Erskine-Smith practised commercial litigation as an associate at Kramer Simaan Dhillon after working as a law student at Aird & Berlis LLP. He told Raj that he found some advantages in commercial litigation that helped him but felt that he could make a bigger impact advocating for issues that affect more Canadians. He took on pro bono cases for a range of clients and causes, including a civil liberties case to protect religious freedom in Ontario's school system. In a notable civil liberties case in 2014, Erskine-Smith successfully argued against compulsory religious studies at publicly funded high schools in Ontario.

Erskine-Smith was vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics during the 42nd Parliament. They also appeared on the last episode in 2022, where they discussed their differing perspectives on addressing Canada's opioid crisis.

Erskine-Smith was re-elected in the 2019 election and 2021 election, in which he received more than twice as many votes as his nearest competitor.

Uncommons Podcast At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Erskine-Smith launched the Uncommons Podcast as a substitute for local town hall meetings. The episodes feature prominent guests, including members of all major parties, and often seek to showcase his thinking on a given issue.

In June 2022, Erskine-Smith hosted former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole, who commented on the 2022 Conservative leadership race, expressing his concern that "the populism of anger or frustration or dislocation" can undermine institutions and national unity. In June 2024, fellow Conservative MP Arnold Viersen sent a letter to Erskine-Smith stating that he felt "ambushed" by Erskine-Smith after it was revealed on the podcast that he would ban same-sex marriage and abortion, and that some members of the Conservative caucus felt the same way. Viersen later walked back his podcast comments, and Erskine-Smith, who felt that those views were anathema to most Canadians, told reporters that he was surprised by the letter, stating that Viersen was well known for his anti-abortion advocacy.

In October 2024, Erskine-Smith hosted both Prime Minister Trudeau, who expressed regret over his handling of electoral reform, He positioned himself as a generational-change candidate and distanced himself from previous leaders of the party, criticizing, for example, senior Liberals who wanted Ontario Greens leader Mike Schreiner to lead their party instead. Erskine-Smith focused his campaign on grassroots renewal, rebuilding the party organization, and a political focus on "fairness". He stated that he saw idealism, optimism and rebuilt party operations in the federal Liberals of 2015 and felt that approach should be applied to their provincial counterparts. A month before the vote, he joined fellow Liberal MP and leadership candidate Yasir Naqvi in a mutual-support pact to rank each other as the second choice in an attempt to defeat Crombie, the perceived front-runner. Both felt that they shared the same priorities during the campaign, that the best way to win the upcoming election was to build a party around Liberal values, and that Crombie's leadership would face criticisms similar to those directed at Premier Doug Ford's Conservatives.

Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities (2024–2025) In January 2024, Erskine-Smith announced that he would not be running in the next federal election, but he changed his mind later in the year when Trudeau appointed him minister of housing, infrastructure and communities on December 20, 2024, in a Cabinet shuffle following Sean Fraser's resignation. During a press conference after his appointment to the role, Erskine-Smith stated, "I understand there’s going to be a short runway," and said his goal would be "to make the biggest difference that I can." Due to his appointment, he reversed his initial decision not to run in the 2025 federal election. Erskine-Smith later explained that he talked to his family and got their approval before accepting the position, and cited his comparison of Pierre Poilievre's Conservative ideology to the Reform Party as another reason for his reversal. He reaffirmed the government's support for the Canada Public Transit Fund, which would allow municipalities to modernize their public transit systems by supporting high-density housing and eliminating mandatory minimum parking requirements within eight hundred metres of transit lines. He was publicly critical of the Ontario government for reducing spending on social housing. In March, Erskine-Smith sent a letter to Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow warning that any move to block six-plexes would result in twenty-five per cent less federal funding than had been pledged annually to Toronto from the Housing Accelerator Fund, a program that incentivizes cities to build more housing.

Erskine-Smith remained in that role under the 30th Canadian Ministry of Mark Carney and was re-elected on April 28, 2025, with the largest vote total for an MP in Toronto. After being dropped from cabinet, Erskine-Smith issued a social media statement taking issue with how he had been dropped, expressing disappointment that he and his team would not be able to build upon the work they had started but saying that he would shift his attention elsewhere.

Return to the backbenches (2025–2026) Following his departure from cabinet, Erskine-Smith released a video criticizing his government’s budget for failing to live up to expectations on climate, housing and international development assistance. Erskine-Smith later told Raj that there was no tension and that Carney personally told him that, while they were not going to agree on everything, he liked the video, finding it well-produced and constructive. He also viewed this as a double standard because Meta was able to block news content for Canadian users. He said he would have resigned earlier but was asked to delay his resignation by the Prime Minister's Office because the government had only a minority in Parliament until April, when it gained a majority due to floor crossings.

Ontario provincial politics After a group of Ontario Liberals called New Leaf Liberals was formed to criticize Crombie's performance in the 2025 Ontario election, Erskine-Smith called for renewal in the party and urged his supporters to register for the Ontario Liberal Party's annual general meeting in September 2025 in order to vote against her in that meeting's leadership review. He backed the New Leaf Liberal demand that Crombie step down if she received the support of less than two-thirds of delegates in the review vote. After Crombie received only 57% support and subsequently resigned the leadership due to a caucus revolt, Erskine-Smith was seen as the presumptive front-runner to succeed her. However, while he admitted that the party was stronger because of her efforts, he was undecided on whether to run a second time for the leadership.

On January 9, 2026, Erskine-Smith teased on his substack that he was exploring seeking the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party in the upcoming leadership election. Erskine-Smith cited the opportunity to build a party that prioritizes equal opportunity, uses fiscal sustainability to deliver social progress, and supports diverse perspectives with reasonable disagreement. On February 3, he confirmed his intention to seek the provincial Liberal nomination in the by-election in Scarborough Southwest. Erskine-Smith said that his decision was based on the fact that the riding shared the same concerns as Beaches—East York over issues such as housing, public transit, education, health care and economic opportunity. On May 9, Erskine-Smith lost the nomination to party organizer and pizza franchisee Ahsanul Hafiz by 19 votes. During the race, Hafiz and a third opponent, Qadira Jackson, formed a pact encouraging their respective supporters to rank each other second on the ranked ballot, criticizing Erskine-Smith for not residing in the riding and allegedly trying to use their community as a stepping stone for his leadership ambitions.

On May 11, interim Ontario Liberal Party leader John Fraser stated that Erskine-Smith should prove that there were irregularities during the nomination vote. After discussing the matter with his team, Erskine-Smith appealed the outcome the following day, alleging irregularities such as 34 more ballots being counted than were cast—more than the 19-vote margin of victory—as well as the party allowing the use of “Amazon orders” as proof of identity. He admitted to Vassy Kapelos that he was less likely to run for the leadership than he had been upon entering the nomination race, feeling that the party did not want to change. The committee said that the 34-vote discrepancy was caused by names not being crossed off the voters list when voters received ballots, and that this was a technical administrative error and not an irregularity. Erskine-Smith delivered his farewell speech to the House of Commons on June 17, 2026. At his June 25, 2026, retirement party, he confirmed that he would not be running for Ontario Liberal leader but was considering running municipally. He also announced that his resignation from Parliament would take effect July 7, 2026.

Political views Erskine-Smith has mostly been characterized as a maverick, though others have described him as a progressive or a left-leaning liberal, and he has been noted for breaking with his own party on certain issues. Erskine-Smith, however, has touted his ability to get things done across all parties,

Democratic reform

Political independence During the SNC-Lavalin affair, Erskine-Smith, alongside fellow Liberal MPs Wayne Long and Joyce Murray, publicly advocated that Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott should remain part of the Liberal caucus. He wrote an op-ed in the Toronto Star in which he contrasted Sheila Copps and advocated that dissident Liberals should stay in caucus. In his National Post op-ed, Erskine-Smith stated that he would lead the party by allowing a diversity of perspectives, united by shared values, and by collaborating on community challenges. Erskine-Smith campaigned on the idea during his nomination race in 2014 before it was added to the Liberal platform. After his party walked back its commitment to changing the electoral system, Erskine-Smith wrote an op-ed in the Huffington Post apologizing to those who believed that the electoral system would change. He stated that his party should have held a referendum as a compromise and that he would not stop advocating for electoral reform. In May 2017, Erskine-Smith, alongside fellow Liberal MP Sean Casey, voted against their own party in accepting a Commons committee report that outlined how electoral reform could be implemented.

During the 2023 Ontario Liberal leadership campaign, Erskine-Smith said that if he were going to address electoral reform, he would advocate for a citizens’ assembly in the vein of New Zealand. He also advocated for phased-in rent controls, an ownership registry, and taxes for investors who avoid increasing supply as ways to treat housing less as an investment.

On February 26, 2016, Erskine-Smith introduced Bill C-246, the Modernizing Animal Protections Act, to ban the import of shark fins and make Canada's animal cruelty laws tougher. On September 5, 2017, Erskine-Smith wrote an article in NOW Magazine addressing his veganism and the importance of social change in the treatment of animals. Two years later, a government bill addressing similar concerns was tabled by Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Climate action In October 2018, Erskine-Smith called an emergency debate on climate change in Parliament in response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's special report on global warming. He requested action by the government and Canadians to ensure that Canada could reduce its emissions and reach the targeted goals. On June 5, 2019, Erskine-Smith introduced Bill C-454, the Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions Act, to require the Government of Canada to reduce GHG emissions to net zero by 2050.

In 2023, Erskine-Smith told Moscrop that he viewed having a good climate plan as important to creating jobs and saw nuclear energy as part of Ontario's energy sources in order to tackle climate change. The following year, the Liberal Party would commit to working towards a "universal national pharmacare program" as part of its confidence and supply agreement with the NDP following the 2021 federal election.

In 2023, Erskine-Smith told Moscorp that he felt the Ford government was incompetently managing Ontario's health-care system through under-investment and inefficiencies. Erskine-Smith later told reporters that he wanted more information on Jody Wilson-Raybould's allegation about the “inappropriate” pressure she faced, pointing to contradictions that needed to be addressed between her testimony to the Commons justice committee and that of subsequent witnesses. He differed from his Liberal colleagues, who wanted Wilson-Raybould or Jane Philpott to use their legal privilege when testifying; instead, he advocated expanded waiver powers for them to testify about SNC-Lavalin. In August 2019, Erskine-Smith wrote an op-ed for the Toronto Star expressing his desire for the right to be forgotten. He explained that, in an increasingly connected online world, citizens should have the right to hide content published about them from search engines if the individual’s privacy is being seriously violated.

In response to the occupation of downtown Ottawa by the Freedom Convoy, the government enacted the Emergencies Act. With Ottawa streets largely cleared of protesters by the time of the vote, Erskine-Smith's speech to Parliament condemned the protests but questioned the necessity of the declaration of emergency and its approval after the clearance. He ultimately voted to confirm the use of the declaration.

Drug policy reform In February 2016, Erskine-Smith represented Canada at a joint United Nations/Inter-Parliamentary Union conference reviewing how different countries were dealing with illegal drugs. He partnered with Mexican Senator Laura Rojas to argue that countries should seek alternatives to incarceration in cases where individuals have drugs solely for personal use. In March 2019, Erskine-Smith wrote an op-ed for NOW Magazine in which he discussed his support for a bill introduced by New Democratic Party (NDP) MP Murray Rankin, stating that only expungements would address the injustice of cannabis criminalization. Erskine-Smith seconded the bill in the House of Commons.

In early January 2017, Erskine-Smith published an op-ed in Vice calling for the decriminalization of all drug possession as a logical next step in the government's drug policy. In late January 2017, Erskine-Smith delivered a speech in the House of Commons in support of Bill C-37, which would expand access to safe injection clinics across Canada. Erskine-Smith introduced Bill C-460, seeking to remove criminal sanctions for low-level possession and reduce the stigma associated with seeking treatment.

In 2018, Erskine-Smith appeared on CBC's Power & Politics to speak about his disappointment with the Liberal government endorsing a ‘War on Drugs’ document from the United States during CUSMA negotiations. Erskine-Smith introduced a Liberal caucus policy resolution to address the opioid crisis through a public health approach, and it was adopted as the second overall priority by the grassroots Liberal membership at the Liberal Policy Convention in Halifax in April 2018. He explained to the Guardian that framing drug use as a criminal issue has shifted the conversation about drugs away from health, helped fuel the black market and diverted resources from law enforcement. In 2020, Erskine-Smith introduced Bill C-235, which would delete the drug possession offence from the Criminal Code. He also introduced Bill C-236, which would provide diversion options to law enforcement, Crown attorneys, and judges for drug possession cases. He has Crohn's disease.

Erskine-Smith married Amelia (Amy) Symington, a Toronto vegan chef and nutritionist, on her family farm in Camlachie, Ontario.

Recognition For his efforts to modernize Canada's federal animal protection laws with Bill C-246, Erskine-Smith received the Humane Legislator Award from Animal Justice. The bill also won support from EndCruelty, a coalition of Canadians who support stronger animal protection laws. In 2017, Erskine-Smith received the Fur-Bearers’ Clements award for his dedication to improving the lives of animals with Bill C-246.

Electoral record

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