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The House

Midweek podcast: Open or not? The Liberal party's nomination controversies

On The House midweek podcast, with two candidate nomination controversies on its hands, the Liberal party has been forced to defend the way candidates are chosen. Is the party really as open as the Prime Minister claims?
CBC Radio ·
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a Q&A at the Young President's Organization EDGE Conference in Vancouver, B.C. on Friday, March 3, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

A potential candidate for the Liberal Party's nomination in the riding of St-Laurent who was rejected without explanation is pleading with the party to change its approach.

Long-time local mayor Alan DeSousa only received a letter from the Liberal party to inform him he was not considered a "Qualified Nomination Contestant," but no other justification.

His absence from the race opened the door to the candidate widely seen as the party's preferred option, former provincial cabinet minister Yolande James.

DeSousa told The House that's contrary to what Justin Trudeau has been saying about nomination contests being open and in the hands of local members.

"Let's not pretend to have an open and fair nomination process where everyone has an equal chance and where the grassroots decide," he said.

Alan DeSousa, borough mayor for Saint-Laurent. (Radio-Canada)

DeSousa argued it would better if the prime minister was open about the party having preferred candidates.

"To pretend that there's an open process when in the facts on the ground that is not borne out does no one any service and it definitely hurts the credibility of the prime minister, but it also damages the reputation of the Liberal Party of Canada."

Nomination races for by-elections in Markham-Thornhill and St-Laurent, two party strongholds, have mired in controversy.

In Markham-Thornhill, Mary Ng, the former director of appointments in the PMO,  beat out two challengers Saturday to win the right to run under the Liberal banner in next month's by-election.

Another candidate complained 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.

Mary Ng won the nomination in Markham-Thornhill. (Mary Ng/Twitter)

The party said the nomination process was run in accordance with the rules.

DeSousa said that the party's "very opaque process, with a green light committee that has no accountability, where there's no due recourse to gestures paused by this committee" must change to avoid repeats of his situation.

"I think the Liberal party should be going through a soul-searching exercise and members of the party and members of parliament who represent that party have to be able to discuss this within the party structure to say: 'What are the changes we can and should bring about?'" he said.