Liberals are waiting for Leader Justin Trudeau to act and every day he dithers is another day when the party is losing sight of the objective. You can hardly expect everyone to be coming to the aid of the party when Justin lies to it. When he was chosen leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he made the promise of no interference in riding nominations. He has not kept his word.
The breaking point was Trinity-Spadina riding in Toronto. Trudeau appointee David MacNaughton said that former candidate Christine McInnes could not run there in the upcoming by-election. That is not David MacNaughton’s decision to make. He was interfering in a Liberal Party internal matter. We stopped appointing dictators in the party quite some time ago.
But Justin Trudeau backed his underling. He supported MacNaughton’s stupid order. There has been discussion of supposed bullying of party supporters and about where certain star candidates might run in the 2015 election but these discussions are irrelevant. They are not matters demanding the attention of the party leader. These might be matters of importance to someone who wishes to micro-manage his political party but Justin Trudeau is supposed to be smarter than that.
As things stand now, Trudeau has taken time off his busy schedule to be seen promoting Toronto Councillor Adam Vaughan as a prospective candidate in Trinity-Spadina. Usually party leaders have the good grace to wait until a candidate has won the nomination to congratulate him on being the party’s candidate.
What is happening now is that the muttering around the party is growing. There is little sympathy for David MacNaughton’s role with the party and he will find less and less support for his advice. It could destroy his effectiveness in preparation and execution of the party strategy next year.
This disruption in Trinity-Spadina also bodes ominously for the by-election. While the new Member of Parliament will sit for less than a year before the 2015 general election, it is in the centre of Toronto where the Liberals absolutely have to win every seat. To give New Democrat candidate Joe Cressy a free pass to parliament puts him in a position to be a spoiler next year. The party will blame MacNaughton and their leader.
Justin Trudeau can ill afford an ineffective Ontario campaign organization. Ontario is the backbone of the Liberal Party. Every win in Ontario is a step to winning the election.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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