Given current polling trends, if an election were to happen now, the Liberals would win the B.C. riding of Cloverdale-Langley City, says pollster Greg Lyle.
The best solution to fix party nomination election controversies is to let Elections Canada oversee the process.
Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall announced last July that this will be her final term as an MP. The deadline to submit nomination papers and to sign up new members eligible to vote in the nomination election is May 15.
Conservative nomination applications for some ridings are due on Feb. 25. Those electoral districts ‘should begin forming candidate nomination committees without delay,’ states a memo from the party’s headquarters, obtained by The Hill Times. And Elan Harper, Stephen Harper’s sister-in-law, wants to run in Calgary Confederation.
Kelly Burke, the nominee to become the next official language commissioner, says her goal in that position is ‘substantive equality’ between French and English across Canada.
Senior Conservative sources tell The Hill Times that current party president Stephen Barber and Christina Mitas have been strategizing and reaching out to potential supporters ahead of the national council election at the end of this month.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s landslide leadership win in the leadership election could unravel quickly if he disappoints grassroots members by sidelining them in the candidate nomination process. He should also remember that once a leader loses the enthusiasm of the party base, winning it back is a major challenge.
Marco Mendicino, John Tory Jr., Mark Wiseman, and Liam Olsen are seen as some potential names to claim nominations in ridings soon to be vacated by Liberal MPs, say party sources.
The new government must demonstrate a genuine commitment to rebuilding confidence in our democratic system by appointing a commissioner for the Foreign Influence Transparency Registry.
In his new book, The Crisis of Canadian Democracy, Andrew Coyne unpacks how parties choose their leaders, how the leaders control their MPs, and how the shortcomings in Canada’s electoral system are putting a squeeze on democracy. It’s not pretty.
‘I’m a victim of Conservative Party’s nomination process,’ says Keshav Mandadi, a potential nomination candidate in Mississauga East-Cooksville, Ont.
Liberal MPs Jaime Battiste and Mike Kelloway both want to run in the newly rejigged and renamed riding of Sydney-Glace Bay. The Liberal Party is declining to say how they will settle this dispute.
The results of The Hill Times’ 2024 year-end poll are in. Liberal MP Sean Fraser scores a hat trick and takes the ‘Most Valuable Politician’ title for the second year in a row, while Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre divides respondents.
As politicians politick over Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre not having a security clearance, former CSIS director Ward Elcock breaks down the process.
Former Liberal minister Sheila Copps says a court challenge or grassroots push could force change, while former Conservative staffer Fred DeLorey says parties should set their own rules.
‘Most people will back out because they realize there’s no point running if the leader doesn’t want you there,’ says former Liberal cabinet minister Sheila Copps.
Former Liberal cabinet minister Sheila Copps says when the central party tips the scales it ‘poisons the well.’ This means fewer people ‘are going to believe that their vote has any value,’ says Rachel Gilliland, who was rejected from seeking a Tory nomination.
The secrecy and lack of integrity in nominations sow doubt and distrust in our political system.
If the Conservatives want a majority government in the next election, they will have to win ridings like Ottawa West-Nepean, says former Hill staffer now public servant Ryan Telford who is seeking the party’s nomination in that riding.
The foreign interference described in four reports amounts to low level nuisances in only a few ridings, a fraction of the 338 seats contested in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
Jacques Shore, a former director of research for Security Intelligence Review Committee, said he ‘applauds’ Parliament for passing C-70, but said ‘we missed an opportunity’ by not also bringing nominations under the Canada Elections Act.
While NSICOP’s report isn’t the first to spotlight weak nomination rules, NDP MP Alistair MacGregor says he is confident Bill C-70 will provide the tools to ‘counter the threat’. The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians’ redacted report examined intelligence on foreign state meddling in Canada’s democratic processes over the past six years. It is explosive.
Julie Séguin, who worked in Pierre Lemieux’s constituency office and who now works for Conservative MP Tako Van Popta, is running for her party’s nomination in Prescott-Russell-Cumberland.
Digital privacy expert Colin Bennett says complaints of improper use of Conservative voter lists in the York region riding contest offer a ‘real-life example’ of the problems with parties self-regulating their nomination races.
The May 1 Liberal nomination contest will elect the party’s candidate for the yet-to-be-scheduled byelection.
