Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca downplayed allegations about dirty political tricks in nomination races following an exclusive QP Briefing story.
That story outlined issues at multiple stages of nomination races, particularly in Scarborough Centre, where several Liberal sources flagged problems with suspicious email addresses, the ability of one candidate to edit a spreadsheet that could have changed the voter rolls, and accusations by multiple campaigns of an effort to harvest PIN codes for online voting.
Collecting PIN codes from members would enable campaigns to vote on behalf of a member. Several Liberal sources also levied charges of the party favouring one candidate in how the issues were resolved. The party said on Monday that it dealt with each of the issues quickly and fairly.
In a press availability following question period, Del Duca said these kinds of concerns have happened in every election cycle and under every leader since he's been in politics, and that the issues are usually raised by losing candidates who don't like the outcome. "I don't think that there's been a single nomination cycle that I've seen take place, over more than three decades, where there haven't been concerns expressed by different actors within the process who are participating," he said.
Del Duca also acknowledged that there can be improvements to the process too. "The party, in my experience, and certainly today, is always looking to enhance and improve the system." He declined to spell out what those improvements may look like. He also shut the door on pausing nominations until issues are worked out, saying that the party "[has] to be careful to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good" and that he has a mandate to act quickly on building out the roster of Liberal candidates. "Everybody I've spoken to understands the urgency," of nominating candidates in an expeditious manner, he added.
Complicating matters, as Del Duca acknowledged, is the pandemic. The global crisis has moved Liberal nominations to a new online process, which has brought with it new kinds of digital campaign problems, with several Liberal sources describing it to QPB as more difficult to scrutinize and ensure accountability.
But Del Duca looks to go full steam ahead. "If I was to wait until we had an iron-clad system...we wouldn't have candidates in place." The Liberal leader invited people who are not happy with nomination campaigns to file an appeal through an internal party process.
The alleged digital dirty tricks continued on Tuesday, the day of the contentious Scarborough Centre vote. There, following QPB's exclusive story, some members received an email from an anonymous Gmail address that seemed to be a form of voter suppression and intimidation: "An investigation has been launched to identify all the members that are not the residents of Scarborough Centre but have falsified their information in order to become a member to suppress the nomination election. A charge will follow for everyone that has been identified and maybe [sic] published in the media as well. You have a chance to protect yourself now before it's too late." The email was signed "David H," the same first name and initial of the QPB reporter who wrote the original story. No one at QPB had anything to do with the email, and it does not reflect the publication's reporting.
It was unclear who sent the email, but multiple Liberals insiders expressed concerns to QPB that not everyone in the riding, which has many immigrants, could see through it for the voter suppression ploy it appears to be.
When asked about the issue Del Duca, who had only recently become aware of the issue and didn't know specifics, said "nominations can be murky" but "we don't want that to be the case," adding it's "really hard" for the party to regulate each individual who is participating in the process.
There have been previous calls for Elections Ontario to regulate and oversee party nomination contests the same way they do in general elections, including by former PC leader Patrick Brown in 2018. Brown's PCs had become embroiled in a series of controversies in 2017 and early 2018 in a handful of contentious ridings that included allegations of ballot-box stuffing and fraud. The police eventually found that there was evidence of fraud, but not a sufficient amount to tie to any particular individual, and so the case was dropped.
The Liberal nomination contest in Scarborough Centre concludes Oct. 6 at 8 p.m., with the result expected shortly thereafter. Candidates in the riding include 2018 candidate Mazhar Shafiq, local businesswoman Tasnim Bala, and Brandon Campbell.
Readers can reach out to reporter David Hains at dhains [at] qpbriefing.com or 416-880-4321
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