Toronto MP Chrystia Freeland has been acclaimed as the Liberal candidate in the new riding of University-Rosedale for the 2015 election but that has not ended the party discord which saw another hopeful nominee barred by the Liberals from running against her or anywhere else.
Hugh Scher, a constitutional lawyer and president of the Liberal riding association in University-Rosedale, said Wednesday that party brass disqualified Christine Innes, who also filed nomination papers in the riding that will be formed from portions of the redrawn Trinity-Spadina and Toronto-Centre constituencies.
Ms. Freeland, who now holds Toronto Centre and who was hand-picked by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, will be acclaimed in University-Rosedale at a nomination meeting scheduled for May 2.
Mr. Scher said in a telephone interview that her acclamation notice was sent to the riding executive on Tuesday evening and came as a surprise.
Without consultation to the executive of the association, they have gone ahead and booked the nominations and determined that Chrystia is going to be the candidate, he said.
I think Chrystia Freeland is a great lady and a very qualified candidate. I think the Liberal party is lucky that we are receiving such interest from such quality candidates, said Mr. Scher.
But holding true to a commitment to open and fair nomination processes is essential to party development and renewal, he said. Recent efforts to circumvent the usual nomination process and to bypass the duly elected community board representatives of University-Rosedale are contrary to basic Liberal and democratic values and to efforts of party renewal that put grass roots community interests ahead of political expediency and backroom dictates.
A senior Liberal party who asked not to be identified said it should come as no surprise to members of the riding association in University-Rosedale that they were not involved in the process of vetting candidates.
We have never said we are going to, and we wont, consult with the riding association in terms of the green-lighting or red-lighting process, he said. Much of the information that we get in that process is confidential information which we are not going to share broadly.
Ms. Innes is currently suing Mr. Trudeau and David MacNaughton, the Liberal partys Ontario campaign co-chair, saying they slandered her by falsely claiming she was blocked from running in any riding because of bullying and intimidation tactics used by her campaign.
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Liberals still facing grassroots grumbling over Toronto nominations