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Is there such a word as “semi-hijacked?”
If so, it describes rather well what’s happened with the Liberal nomination in Mississauga-Erindale.
When Carolyn Parrish got up on her hind legs Monday afternoon to ask the very last question of the Parliamentary session, it closed the federal chapter of her career and opened the doors to the messy “nomination” process that’s going to determine her successor as Liberal candidate, Thursday night at the Coptic Church.
The garrulous Parrish, who never met a microphone she didn’t love, announced her intentions to resign earlier to try to force her (former) party into holding a proper nomination.
They appeared in no hurry to do so, which convinced a lot of people, including me, that an appointment was in the works.
In the meantime, the local executive, who naturally consist of Parrish supporters, was conducting a search for potential candidates who were then screened by the central party.
Ten people eventually put their names forward.
One of them was not Steve Mahoney, the former councillor-MPP-MP, who lost a bitter nomination battle to Parrish last time around.
Although the search committee went through the motions of approaching both Mahoney and his wife, Ward 8 Councillor Katie Mahoney, “the whole thing is rigged,” the Mississauga consultant fumed yesterday.
“It's not democracy” because the 3,600 existing members who can vote at tomorrow’s meeting were signed up by Parrish for two years during her fight against Mahoney. (Mahoney's members were signed up for a shorter period.)
The party has deigned to approve the credentials of just two candidates, Minister-in-waiting Charles Sousa, a senior manager at the Royal Bank of Canada, and Omar Alghabra, the former president of the Canadian Arab Association.
The riding president, Elias Hazineh, a prominent player in the Palestinian community, was also originally approved. He was dropped, however, after he made several incendiary remarks about the state of Israel at a Toronto dinner earlier this month.
“Not only could I not win, I could not even be competitive,” said Mahoney, one of several non-candidates upset by the process.
Another is former provincial candidate and school board trustee George Winter who said the party's attitude seems to be, “just dare to run and we’ll show you who runs this place. Until political parties stop this hijacking of the political process, we will continue to have special interest or one-interest candidates. I think the Liberal Party feels that they can get away with this in this particular riding because it will still vote Liberal,” said Winter.
Although about 80 per cent of the membership is Arab or Palestinian Muslims, that doesn’t mean that Alghabra is a shoo-in, said Mahoney, who is busy trying to find out if he still has a vote Thursday night.
Just like in general elections, there is as much voting against candidates as for them.
“I think it will be an upset for Sousa to win,” said the former Cabinet Minister, “but I think he has a chance. It depends on whether the Palestinian Muslims abandon Carolyn or accept her advice.”
Parrish is quite clearly enamoured of Sousa. “Charles is Cabinet material,” she said yesterday.
There's not much doubt that the party would prefer Sousa, a man with an MBA and lots of experience in the banking industry who could help out in the tricky business of bank mergers.
A couple of notes: Parrish is part of an election panel on CBC Radio's The Current. The group includes fellow Mississaugan Buzz Hargrove and former Reformer Deborah Grey. Parrish will be hosting the show for three hours on Dec. 23 and has carte blanche to invite guests. Voodoo doll makers, prepare to be summoned.
Although people may have thought speculation about former Ontario NDP Leader Bob Rae running in Mississauga-Erindale for the Grits was pure fantasy, Mahoney said it was far from it.
“He was seriously considering it but he wanted to finish the Air India issue, so he took a pass. It’s nice to see someone who’s willing to put his principles first,” said Mahoney.
I don't know Steve. Who would want people like that in politics?