Nothing is coming easily to Tim Peterson these days, including the walkover nomination he was promised when he made the decision to leave the Liberal caucus to join the non-musical group known as John and the Tories.
It looked liked the public squabbling in the ranks of Mississauga South Conservatives was all a moot (or should that be mute?) point a couple of weeks ago, after Effie Triantafilopoulos threw in the towel in her battle to force an open nomination for the seat.
Not so.
Still stinging from Peterson’s decision and by the way their former enemy was foisted on them by a distant party executive that refused to abide any questioning of its wisdom, a dissident rump of the executive is now questioning if the MPP’s nomination meeting tomorrow night has been duly constituted.
Riding President Dianne Lawson faced a barrage of questions Monday night as the latest executive session turned rancourous.
Several members were upset that they learned, via a letter they had received that same day, of the nomination four nights later. Lawson explained that the party approved new rules March 25 that allow the nomination period to be shortened in appropriate circumstances, such as the acclamation for Peterson.
That didn’t sit well with many members who said they were not consulted.
When they looked at the revised rules later, they found that the nomination period can be shortened by the party, “when petitioned by a riding association for a shorter timeframe.” That got them even more exercised because no one remembered providing such authorization.
“This is totally, totally wrong,” board director Roy Willis said today of how the meeting was called. “Nobody’s against the nomination process, but you have to follow the rules,” he said.
“The rules were changed and we weren’t told they were changed,” adds director Lynne Butler. “I think you can see that the riding association is not being given options about things.”
Lawson, who has been the standard bearer for the party brass in the riding, is getting very, very tired of the refusal of some members to accept the obvious fact that Peterson is here to stay.
She says the executive did approve a motion April 10, asking that the party call a nomination meeting “expeditiously.” She says she followed that directive in asking for the meeting at Clarkson Secondary School at 8 p.m. tomorrow.
Asked why she didn’t bring that up when cross-examined about it Monday, Lawson said, “it (the meeting) was so hectic, I’d forgotten it.”
The riding president is “not sure what the problem is” with the dissidents. “Effie has accepted a position on the provincial strategy team,” so the fireworks should be all over, says Lawson.
But the bitterness engendered by the red carpet rolled out for Peterson, whom many of the faithful consider a less-than-stellar candidate, is not dissipating quickly.
Some are still questioning Lawson’s actions, saying that the request of the executive for the early meeting was in the context of having a complete, open and democratic nomination, not the coronation that now awaits Peterson. The director who placed the motion, Ed Kowal, calls the president’s interpretation, “an affront to civility.”
The good news for the Tories is that — since they’ve been so good at circling the wagons and shooting inwards during the nomination process — their aim should be pretty straight by the time they start shooting at some Liberals.