The Progressive Conservatives continue to run into controversy over the nomination of candidates for the upcoming provincial election.
The nomination process, with prospective candidates scrambling to sign up new members and get them out to vote, can often be messy. But this election year the Conservatives are experiencing more than their share of nomination headaches, including fights in these 905 ridings:
Thornhill. The party hierarchy wanted CFRB talk show host Peter Shurman as the candidate in Thornhill, a winnable riding now held by the Liberals' Mario Racco. The problem for the party was that Norm Gardner, a former Metro Toronto councillor and former chair of the Toronto police services board, had been working the riding for the past year and had the nomination sewn up.
To clear the way for Shurman, the party leaned on Gardner to step aside. No reason was given, but it is safe to assume that the party was worried about his political baggage. (Gardner was kicked off the police services board for unethical conduct, although the courts subsequently overturned the decision and reinstated him.)
Gardner agreed to withdraw from the nomination race, with the party picking up his out-of-pocket expenses (about $5,000), and Shurman is to be acclaimed as the candidate at a meeting tonight.
Calling himself "a team player," Gardner says he will back Shurman, although his disappointment is evident. "I'm not jumping for joy," he says. "Let's put it that way."
Oak Ridges-Markham. Phil Bannon, a Whitchurch-Stouffville councillor and a former Toronto cop, won a four-person race for the Conservative nomination in this open riding earlier this month. But hard feelings linger over some of his tactics, including the signing up of several dozen residents of a long-term care facility that looks after Alzheimer's sufferers.
Bannon managed to win the nomination without the seniors' support, as they showed up at the meeting too late to register to vote. But two of the losing candidates, former Whitchurch-Stouffville mayor Sue Sherban and former riding association president D'Arcy Pigott, have refused to endorse Bannon's candidacy in protest.
Mississauga South. Tim Peterson, the incumbent MPP who quit the Liberal caucus earlier this year, was acclaimed as the Conservative candidate earlier this month after the party hierarchy leaned on three other candidates to get out of the race.
But Peterson did not even get to deliver a speech at his nomination meeting as supporters of the other candidates voted to cut the proceedings short in protest over being forced to accept a former Liberal as their standard-bearer.
Prior to the adjournment vote, the dissidents tried unsuccessfully to use procedural tactics to derail the nomination of Peterson. Feelings ran high with Margaret Marland, the former Conservative MPP whom Peterson defeated in 2003, reportedly calling the nomination process "despicable."
"Politics can be an emotional business," explains Blair McCreadie, president of the provincial Conservatives, when asked to comment on these examples of party turmoil.
But he notes that the party has nominated candidates in 86 ridings (of 107), almost all of them without incident.
"I'm not terribly concerned at all," he says.
Perhaps he needn't be concerned. But in these three 905 ridings – all of them winnable for the Conservatives – the party machine may not be running on all cylinders in the fall election campaign.
Ian Urquhart's provincial affairs column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at iurquha@thestar.ca
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