“People can still vote, just not for the people they thought they were going to vote for,” would-be candidate Christopher Baenninger says.
A decision by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to prevent Liberal Party members from choosing their own candidate in a byelection in the riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun by parachuting in his own choice is not going over well with those who had sought to win the nomination locally.
“It’s 100 per cent anti-democratic,” said school commissioner Lori Morrison in a telephone interview with the Presse Canadienne.
Morrison said she can’t believe her party let her knock on doors in the riding and sign up new party members only to then refuse to hold a nomination meeting for a byelection that has to be called by next Tuesday.
She argued that the nomination vote is an important part of the process “because this has been a Liberal bastion for a very, very long time,” she said.
Trudeau made the decision to name Montreal city councillor Laura Palestini as the party candidate, Liberal cabinet minister and campaign co-president Soraya Martinez Ferrada said. Trudeau is on vacation and not available for an interview, his office said on Monday. The party did not make anyone available to answer questions, replying instead with generalities.
“We’re still in a democracy,” he said. “People can still vote, just not for the people they thought they were going to vote for.”
Despite his disappointment, Baenninger says Trudeau’s intervention “respects the rules,” as there is a “green light committee that can reject any candidacy on the grounds of “the higher interest of the party.”
That said, Baenninger maintains Palestini was “parachuted” into the riding and Morrison says she “never heard (Palestini’s) name.”
Asked if Trudeau’s decision has hurt the party’s chances in the byelection, Baenninger replied: “We didn’t improve our chances. I’ll leave it there.”
The Liberals are trailing the federal Conservatives by 20 points nationally and a shocking byelection loss last month to the Tories in the perceived stronghold of riding Toronto—St. Paul’s has led to growing calls for Trudeau to step down.
The third would-be candidate for the Liberals in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun is Eddy Kara, a filmmaker and former organizer for the Quebec Liberals. He said he has tried since February to reach Palestini, but received no response.
Kara said Trudeau’s involvement in the nomination process is “shocking,” even more so since the party gave him every indication a nomination process would be held, including publishing a nomination kit and conducting a meeting of the green light committee.
He said he heard the Liberals wanted “someone of Italian origin” to “make sure we had the Italian vote.” However, Kara says he heard three members of the riding executive were considering nominating Daniela Romano, another city councillor in LaSalle.
According to the 2016 census, 8.2 per cent of the riding’s residents are of Italian origin.