Trudeau rigs by-election nomination for his friend

[Rwede]

Liberal candidates revolt in Markham-Thornhill as retroactive deadline seen as favouring top Trudeau aide Ng


On Feb. 20, the Liberal Party sent an email saying the deadline for signing up new members eligible to vote was Feb. 14.

By ABBAS RANA
PUBLISHED : Monday, Feb. 27, 2017 12:00 AM



Two candidates seeking the federal Liberal nomination in the vacant Markham-Thornhill, Ont., riding are crying foul over the party’s handling of the nomination process, saying the party is “doing everything they can” to get Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s director of appointments, Mary Ng, elected as the candidate in next weekend’s nomination meeting.

“Mary Ng is the [Liberal] candidate,” said Markham businessman Nadeem Qureshi, who is one of the three candidates running for nomination in the riding. “That’s what the Liberal [party leadership] wants. There’s no doubt on that.”

Juanita Nathan, a Markham school board trustee, who is also running for the nomination, said she’s holding a press conference on Monday, Feb.27 to express her “serious concerns” about how the party is trying to get Ms. Ng elected as the Liberal candidate in the riding.

“I strongly feel the voice of the electorate must be heard and that it is imperative to the democratic process that all nomination candidates have an equal and fair chance to be selected to represent their political party in the upcoming by-elections,” Ms. Nathan told The Hill Times.

The two candidates expressed concerns about the fairness of the process last week after the party retroactively imposed a deadline for newly signed members to be eligible to cast votes in the nomination contest.

On Monday, Feb. 20, at about 7 p.m., the party sent out an email to Markham-Thornhill Liberal Party members, advising them that the nomination meeting will take place on Saturday, March 4. The same email also informed the riding association that only the members who signed up with the party by Feb. 14 are eligible to vote in the nomination contest.

Both Mr. Qureshi and Ms. Nathan said they did not know in advance that the cut-off date would be Feb. 14. Both candidates signed up more than two thousand members in total, but could not submit those memberships to the party because of the retroactive deadline. This means their newly signed up members will not be able to cast their votes in the nomination contest.

“What’s the logic behind the Feb. 14 deadline?” Mr. Qureshi said.

He said he questioned the Liberal Party about why the deadline was not announced in advance but never received any response.

Mr. Qureshi said he’s disappointed with the way the party has run the nomination contest and now he’s considering running as an Independent in the byelection.

“I’ve already started exploring the idea of running as an Independent candidate,” said Mr. Qureshi.

While he did not use the word himself, Mr. Qureshi said, “yes,” when asked by The Hill Times if he thinks the process is “rigged.”

Ms. Ng was not available for an interview with The Hill Times last week, but a spokeswoman for her campaign in an emailed response did not directly address allegations of rigged nomination process.

“Mary has broad support from local Liberals (including MPP Michael Chan and Khalid Usman) and community leaders and knows this will be a competitive and hard-fought nomination,” wrote Amanda Alvaro, referring to endorsements from Mr. Chan, Ontario’s International Trade minister, and Mr. Usman, a former city councillor for Markham. “She is working hard to earn the support and confidence of all residents of Markham-Thornhill.”

The nomination for this riding opened after Mr. Trudeau appointed former Immigration minister John McCallum as Canada’s ambassador to China last month. The Liberal Party is holding the nomination meeting to elect the candidate on Saturday, March 4 while the byelection is scheduled for April 3.

Even before the nomination contest opened up officially in the riding on Feb. 10, some potential candidates were not sure that the party would hold a fair, open, and transparent contest giving all candidates an equal opportunity.

After Ms. Ng, a close friend of Katie Telford, chief of staff to the prime minister, made her candidacy official on Feb. 15, several decided not to pursue the contest, privately saying it’s pointless to run because the party has decided it wants Mr. Trudeau’s senior adviser as the candidate.

Ms. Nathan and her supporters reached out to numerous Liberal MPs and the top party leadership, requesting intervention to get a fair nomination contest. When all attempts failed, she decided to hold a press conference.

Braeden Caley, the federal Liberal Party’s senior director of communications, also did not directly address allegations of a rigged nomination process allegations or why the party imposed a retroactive deadline.

In an email to The Hill Times, he said: “Following Mr. McCallum’s announcement that he would be leaving Parliament, registration for any new Liberals seeking to vote at the Markham-Thornhill nomination meeting continued to be open for an additional five weeks.”

“Local registered Liberals in Markham-Thornhill will be nominating their next Team Trudeau candidate on Saturday, March 4th, in line with all of the interim national nomination rules that are openly available on the party’s website.”

Mr. Caley did not say how many candidates have been green-lighted by the party. Ms. Alvaro confirmed to The Hill Times that Ms. Ng had been approved, while Ms. Nathan and Mr. Qureshi said they were still waiting for the party’s verdict, as of deadline last week. This means only Ms. Ng has so far had access to the complete riding association membership list, while the other two potential candidates had the list of only their own supporters.

It’s unclear if there are others besides these three running for the nomination.

Pierre Bocti, president of the federal Markham-Thornhill Liberal riding association, did not respond to an interview request last week.

http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/02/27/mar ... date/97556

[GenesisGT]

Hopefully it doesn't matter who the Liberals run and the voters send a message to Trudeau and vote in Conservatives in all five by-elections on April 3rd.

Riding by-elections Ottawa-Vanier, Saint-Laurent, Markham-ThornhillConservatives, Calgary Midnapore and Calgary Heritage.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/02/22/five-by-elections-wont-test-trudeau-but-they-do-mark-the-end-of-an-era-hbert.html

[The Green Barbarian]

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/02/22/five-by-elections-wont-test-trudeau-but-they-do-mark-the-end-of-an-era-hbert.html

Hopefully JT still thinks he is this super-star and goes and campaigns in all of these ridings, and is roundly and soundly booed off the stage. Who is he going to elbow in the boobs in anger this time?

[maryjane48]

*removed*

[Rwede]

Trudeau's going for the hottie and blocking the middle class dude from running.


Liberals reject local mayor in Montreal by-election, clearing way for rival

DANIEL LEBLANC
OTTAWA
5 HOURS AGO
FEBRUARY 28, 2017


The Liberal Party of Canada has rejected the candidacy of a local power broker in a heated nomination battle in Montreal, increasing the odds of victory for former provincial minister Yolande James.

In an interview on Tuesday, the mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa, said he has recently been informed by party officials that his name would not be on the ballot at the coming Liberal nomination meeting in Saint-Laurent. Mr. DeSousa said the party's "green-light committee" did not provide any explanation for his rejection.

"There is no reason why my name should be excluded," Mr. DeSousa said, hoping for a speedy reversal of the ban. "Every day that goes by is a day that I lose to the advantage of other candidates, including those that might be favoured by party brass."

[The Green Barbarian]

This is Justin just following in his dad's footsteps. His dad was the one who brought in the law that said that the party leader could over-ride individual constituencies and appoint the people they wanted to run. In other words, it really doesn't matter who you guys want to be your candidate, if I, Justin Trudeau, want someone else, you can lump it. This rule/law was put in place so that Pierre could have the sychophants he wanted as MP's. Don't want to allow anybody who might challenge the leader.

Of course, it's ok if the Liberals do this. Harper was a tyrant if he ever invoked this rule, but old Justin is never to be criticized, ever.

[Gone_Fishin]

Was there ever any doubt? Trudeau forced his candidate into the nomination by bullying out the others. When will people wake up?


PMO staffer now candidate


The Canadian Press - Mar 4, 2017 / 5:40 pm | Story: 190649


A senior aide to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will carry the Liberal banner in a federal byelection next month.

The Liberal party says Mary Ng beat out two challengers Saturday in a nomination battle in the Toronto-area riding of Markham-Thornhill.

Ng worked in the Prime Minister's Office as his director of appointments.

Ng, who came to Canada from Hong Kong with her family, does not live in the riding but grew up in nearby north Toronto.

“My goal is to spend the next several weeks of the by-election working hard to earn the support of voters to become the next Member of Parliament for this important riding,” Ng said in a statement.

The nomination battle was mired in controversy in the past week when another contender pulled out of the race saying it was set up to favour Ng.

Juanita Nathan was unhappy that the party set an early cutoff date to register new members, saying more than 2,000 people she signed up were ineligible to vote in Saturday's nomination.


http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/190 ... -candidate

[madmudder]

*removed*

[westbankkid]

The best way to screw TRUDOPE is to run as an independant. That will steal votes from the Liberals and hopefully sink the little P*i*k Trudopes chances.

[Gone_Fishin]

There we have it, blood on Trudeau's hands in this scandal.



Trudeau approved blocking of Montreal candidate from Liberal MP race

DANIEL LEBLANC


OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Mar. 13, 2017 5:00AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Mar. 13, 2017 9:09AM EDT

Justin Trudeau has often said that open party nominations would allow local members to choose who can become a Liberal candidate, but a recent race shows that the Prime Minister has the final word over who gets on the ballot in some of these hotly contested campaigns.

The Globe and Mail has learned that Mr. Trudeau played a key role in blocking the candidacy of a local power broker ahead of the nomination meeting in the Montreal riding of St-Laurent last week. After an investigation, the Liberal Party’s Green Light committee, which vets candidates in nomination races, rejected Alan DeSousa, the long-time mayor of the borough of St-Laurent.

The matter was then brought to Mr. Trudeau. The Liberal Leader was briefed on the committee’s rationale and approved the decision to block the candidacy, a senior official confirmed.

The official said there was not a single reason that explained the “red-lighting” of Mr. DeSousa’s candidacy. Instead, the Liberal Party and Mr. Trudeau made a subjective assessment in relation to Mr. DeSousa and whether he was the right person to become the face of the party in St-Laurent, the official said.

The Liberal Party, however, has refused to provide any explanation for its decision to the public, or even to Mr. DeSousa. The move has reignited concerns among Liberal candidates and their supporters about the state of internal democracy in the party. Holding open nominations – instead of directly appointing candidates – has been a key element of Mr. Trudeau’s efforts to attract fresh blood to the party since his election as Liberal Leader in 2013.

The public battles between Liberals reinforced the sense that candidates had to work hard for a place on the ballot, in the same way Mr. Trudeau himself ran for the nomination in the Montreal riding of Papineau in 2007.

However, the process has been publicly decried as opaque and arbitrary by some party members who argue the Liberals are willing to bend party rules or impose decisions to influence the outcome in favour of preferred candidates.

The list of nomination meetings that have been mired in controversy is long, starting with the one ahead of the Trinity-Spadina by-election in 2014. The matter haunts the Liberals to this day, as would-be candidate Christine Innes is suing the party over her exclusion ahead of the vote.

Other races that have been marred by division and infighting in recent years include the ones that were won by former Toronto police chief Bill Blair and Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly. They both benefited from high-level endorsements, which irked other candidates already in the race.

In one bitter fight in 2014, in the riding of Mississauga-Lakeshore, the losing campaign of Julie Desjardins has long alleged irregularities on the part of the eventual winner, now Liberal MP Sven Spengemann.

One of Ms. Desjardins’s supporters, former Liberal MP Paul Szabo, has conducted a long investigation into the expenses of the team of Mr. Spengemann, who has since acknowledged making an excess contribution of more than $2,000 to the campaign. Some of these funds were used to cover a printing contract that had originally been paid by Jamie Kippen, who now works in Mr. Trudeau’s office, but wasn’t initially reported to Elections Canada, records show.

/////////////snip\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Former Liberal MP Marlene Jennings was hired by the Liberal Party ahead of the 2015 general election to handle complaints from various nomination contestants. Along with co-ombudsman Andy Mitchell, who is also a former Liberal MP, Ms. Jennings sent a report to Liberal President Anna Gainey that stated nominations were flawed.

“I thought the process needed to be modified to be more transparent and fairer, which is how I feel to this day,” Ms. Jennings said in an interview. She added that the recommendations to open up the Green Light process were not followed, stating the Liberal Party “wants complete control over who will be a candidate and who won’t.”

Of the five ongoing by-elections across Canada, two have featured bitter nomination battles.

In Markham-Thornhill, which was vacated by former immigration minister John McCallum in January, only about 200 members voted after the party imposed a retroactive cutoff date for new members. Candidate Juanita Nathan dropped out of the race after saying 1,600 new members had been declared ineligible to vote. The race was won by Mary Ng, a former director of appointments in Mr. Trudeau’s office.

In the multiethnic riding of St-Laurent, which was vacated by former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, Mr. DeSousa speculated he was pushed aside to make room for Yolande James, a former provincial minister with strong allies in the Liberal hierarchy.

Ms. James lost in the first round of the vote. The final result shocked many Liberal Party members as 26-year-old teacher Emmanuella Lambropoulos won in the second round against fiscal law professor Marwah Rizqy.

Still, Mr. DeSousa argues the result was actually a backlash against the meddling of the Liberal Party in the race. Ms. Lambropoulos was the only one of the three candidates who lived in St-Laurent.

“The machinations and shenanigans that were used to take away my opportunity to be on the ballot may have worked in the 1950s, but not in 2017,” Mr. DeSousa said.

Mr. DeSousa said he provided the Liberal Party with a police report and financial data to show he was “clean as a whistle.” He acknowledges he was likely hurt by the fact Montreal municipal politics were broadly tainted in recent years by a number of collusion and corruption scandals. In 2013, Quebec’s anti-corruption unit raided a number of municipal offices in Montreal, including the one in the borough of St-Laurent.

However, he insisted he has never been under investigation.

Mr. Trudeau has continued to defend his party’s nomination policy throughout recent controversies, suggesting complaints came from those who “speculate and create conflicts.”

In coming months, he will have to decide how to proceed ahead of the 2019 general election. One possibility would be for him to protect all of his sitting MPs from nomination battles, or determine criteria to shield MPs with healthy riding associations and expose others to challenges. What is certain is that another round of contentious nominations will be held in the ridings that are currently in the hands of the opposition.

“The Liberal Party of Canada is committed to fair and open nominations, and we are proud of the five outstanding Team Trudeau candidates that local Liberals have nominated for ongoing by-elections across Canada,” party spokesman Braeden Caley said.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... e34278156/

[The Green Barbarian]

Disgusting!