The writ has officially dropped and Scarborough-Rouge River voters will head to the polls on Sept. 1, according to the premier's office.
The announcement came Wednesday, minutes after Liberal candidate Piragal Thiru issued his own press release on the byelection being called. Thiru will face off against Progressive Conservative candidate and Toronto city councillor Raymond Cho, NDP contender and Toronto District School Board trustee Neethan Shan, and the Green Party's Priyan De Silva. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Today I signed the writ authorizing the by-election in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ScarboroughRougeRiver?src=hash">#ScarboroughRougeRiver</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ONpoli?src=hash">#ONpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/d7oIyvmB4e">pic.twitter.com/d7oIyvmB4e</a>
— Elizabeth Dowdeswell (@LGLizDowdeswell) <a href="https://twitter.com/LGLizDowdeswell/status/760851398112190464">August 3, 2016</a></blockquote>
"Liberal values are the values that allowed my family to come to this country and to this community as refugees when I was 11 years old. I want to get to work for Scarborough and continue to build this community up through investments in our hospitals, public transit and our schools," Thiru's statement said.
His opponent Cho issued a statement, too, saying Sept. 1 will be an opportunity for east-end Toronto voters to show the Premier they are "tired of broken and empty promises when it comes to subways, health care and affordable hydro."
For the NDP's part, both Shan and party leader Andrea Horwath accused Premier Kathleen Wynne of ignoring Scarborough and hiding out in Michigan, where the premier was signing an <a title="Heard: Ontario and Michigan, traditional auto rivals, announce new partnership" href="http://www.qpbriefing.com/2016/08/03/heard-ontario-and-michigan-traditional-auto-rivals-announce-new-partnership/" target="_blank">automotive agreement</a> when the byelection was called.
"Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals have taken Scarborough for granted. People feel it and see it firsthand when they open up their hydro bill, or when they’re stuck in traffic and when they can’t get the care they need at our local hospital,” Shan added in a statement.
It won't be the first time Cho (who has enlisted Doug Ford to run his campaign) will spar with Shan — the former beat the latter in Ward 42 during the 2010 and 2014 municipal elections, and again provincially in the June 2014 election.
The Scarborough-Rouge River seat opened up after veteran Liberal MPP Bas Balkissoon (who held the seat for a decade) suddenly resigned in March, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. Wynne had six months from Balkissoon's resignation to call a byelection.
However, there's no word yet on a date for the Ottawa-Vanier byelection, which is needed after former Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur announced her resignation in June. Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell told QP Briefing she would be signing only one writ, for Scarborough, today. So far only one potential candidate is officially vying for the Ottawa seat: Claude Bisson, brother of NDP MPP Gilles Bisson, will seek the NDP nomination.

Scarborough-Rouge River byelection set for Sept. 1

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