Damien Kurek, the Conservative MP-elect for Battle River-Crowfoot, just announced he's stepping down to allow Poilievre to run in a by-election.
The riding, which Kurek has held since 2019, occupies a vast territory in Alberta between Calgary and Edmonton and has been a Conservative stronghold since it was created 10 years ago.
Kurek was first elected in the riding in 2019. In an emailed statement, Kurek said the decision is temporary, saying he'd hand over his seat to Poilievre "for the remainder of this Parliamentary session" and "run again here in Battle River-Crowfoot in the next general election."
It's unclear what that means for Poilievre afterward.
"Pierre Poilievre just finished a remarkable national campaign that received the highest vote share since 1988," Kurek said in the statement.
"An unstoppable movement has grown under his leadership, and I know we need Pierre fighting in the House of Commons to hold the Liberal minority government to account."
How would MMP/STV handle a situation like this? Can candidates running locally also be on the party list?
This issue falls out of the scope of these electoral systems. It's like asking "how would MMP/STV handle foreign interference", when neither MMP/STV are supposed to handle foreign interference. So, if what you really want to know is how local representation maintained regardless of electoral system, the answer is to have stronger rules and regulations surrounding elections. Particularly, banning "parachute" candidates, which are candidates that run in electoral districts of which they are not local to.
Under MMP, no. It would be like if a candidate was allowed to run in multiple electoral districts.