Random Access

In retrospect, says Charlie Conn, "they reeled me in like a lazy trout."
The "they" to whom he refers are the political operations branch (or is it political operatives division) of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Conn has been around politics for a long time, being a candidate himself in 1993 in Mississauga West for the then-Reform Party. Last fall, when it became evident that the reign of former MPP Carl DeFaria and his wife Riina (two-time federal candidate against incumbent Albina Guarnieri) was over in Mississauga East-Cooksville, he decided to get involved in reviving the new riding association in a big way.
The first organizational meeting was held at his apartment. Conn was ecstatic that things were moving quickly. He joined the candidate nominating committee that was to search for appropriate folks to represent the party and was looking forward to the invigorating exercise of sorting through the applicants and deciding who would have the best chance to beat Guarnieri.
It turned out that things were moving so very fast for a very good reason: HQ already had a candidate in mind.
Myron Kowalchuk, who also joined the executive about the same time, was thinking about running himself.
At the very first meeting, Karma MacGregor of the party's political operations section, mentioned that there was someone already interested in the nomination. Melissa Bhagat, a 32-year-old former Liberal, had become disenchanted with that Liberals after she was summarily bypassed by the Paul Martin forces in 2004 when she was seeking to be their candidate in the federal riding of Brampton-Springdale.
Instead, the federal Liberals appointed another young South Asian woman there, Mississauga resident Ruby Dhalla, who was subsequently elected.
Kowalsky quickly found out by asking around, that Bhagat had been touched by the hand of the leader or his minions who have the ability to pull a lot of strings in supposedly "open" nominations.
"When I finally saw Melissa she was hanging out with Karma as if she was the candidate already," says Kowalsky. "It does look like it was stacked against me."
While Mississauga South has five candidates and can't buy a release to hold a nomination meeting despite numerous requests to do so, Mississauga East-Cooksville mysteriously embarked on a sprint to its nomination.
When Conn began looking a little closer at amendments to party rules passed last year, he was alarmed to discover that not only did the riding not meet five of the six criteria required before they could even launch a search for a candidate but that there was a major escape clause for the party if it didn't like the ways things were going.
The "abridgement" clause states that the director of political operations, after consulting the president of the National Council may "alter, abridge or suspend any requirements in these rules... in such circumstances as he sees fit."
Maybe that should actually be, "as be HE sees fit."
Conn and other executive members who wanted to see a contest for the nomination tried to get the process deferred, but no no avail. As party leaders wished, say Conn and Kowalchuk, Bhagat was acclaimed Jan. 4.
The Conservatives are justifiably proud of the fact that, unlike the Liberals, they do not appoint candidates, as the Grits have just done again in Etobicoke North.
But the claim rings hollow when nominations are strategically held, or not held, to favour certain candidates.
Ten or so members of the Mississauga East-Cooksville executive have resigned in protest. In a riding which will be an uphill battle under the best-case scenario for the Tories, Conn says the party seems to have gone out of its way to find a candidate who has "zero Conservative credentials." On top of that they already seem to have alienated a good chunk of the core supporters who tried to relaunch the association in the first place.
I interviewed Bhagat this week to prepare a profile for her candidacy and found her a charming, intelligent young woman who has prepared herself well for public life. The Mississauga native speaks four languages, studied international relations and political science at York University, gained valuable experience in presenting herself at various beauty pageants (Miss Teen Toronto, Miss India Canada, Miss India Worldwide and Miss Millennium), ran her own company in India, worked during the high-tech boom in Silicon Valley and has done extensive charity work, including representing Mississauga's World Vision in India, from which her parents emigrated.
She says her family were typical immigrants who automatically voted Liberal. It was only after Stephen Harper was elected Prime Minister that she really started to look at Tory policies seriously, she says. She found many very attractive, especially on the economic side.
Bhagat knows she has a lot of fences to mend within the riding and insists she was not the "chosen one." In fact, she was lying in a hospital bed while most of the arrangements for the nomination were underway. On Dec. 9. her mother and best friend, died in a car which she was driving which was involved in a serious accident just outside the Brampton Civic Hospital.
The candidate simply says she was better prepared than any other participant and was rewarded for her acumen when party officials became nervous about a potential election and pulled the trigger on a prompt nomination.
Maybe so, but contrast her reaction now with her reaction in 2004 when the nomination rug was pulled out from under her.
In a story at that time in The Brampton Guardian, reporter Roger Belgrave wrote that, "Bhagat said she was shocked by the prime minister's decision. In conversations ... as recent as last week, Bhagat said she was given the impression a nomination was still a real possibility.
Rumours the Prime Minister might also choose to appoint a woman with South Asian ties from the area also led Bhagat to believe she might be the appointee.
When she discovered it was instead someone she knew well and went to for help with her own campaign, Bhagat was floored. "Words really can't express how you feel at that point," she said.
Several Conservatives in Mississauga East-Cooksville know the feeling well.
• • •
Gabriela Nowakowska makes her first appearance in court to defend charges that her dog Rambo is a pit bull next Friday at 1:30 p.m. at 950 Burnhamthorpe Rd. W.
You can expect protesters outside and, likely, a quick appearance to set a further court date inside.
All along, Nowakowska has hoped that she may be able to bail her dog out of the clink while the process unfolds over the next few months. It remains to be seen if an effort will be made to do that. Right now Rambo has a room of his own at the Mississauga Animal Control Centre where he is apparently being well cared for.
Ward 6 Councillor Carolyn Parrish, self-appointed assistant defence lawyer, says the biggest problem facing Nowakowska at the moment is a lack of cash to continue the battle.
Despite many public pledges of support, contributions have not exactly been rolling in. There was good news today when an obedience trainer named Rosalind Paton from Oshawa donated $650 she has raised through her clients.
A social event last week at the Pope John XXIII Cultural Centre on Cawthra Rd. also raised several hundred dollars.
In the meantime, Parrish's motion on a new option for accused pit bulls, which could see them shipped out of the province by the City rather than automatically euthanized, has been deferred for a staff report.
Ditto for her "Krinkles" amendment that would see cats automatically held for 10 days rather than three before being put down.