It all comes down to the wire today in what will be one of the most hotly contested Toronto ridings in the October federal election. It is widely assumed by politicos that whoever the riding Liberals pick as their candidate will become the next Member of Parliament. The dour Conservative incumbent Joe Oliver has failed as Finance Minister and has little excuse for his poor performance.
What is very important to remember today is that Eve Adams, who was the Conservative MP from Mississauga jumped from the Harper Conservatives to the Trudeau Liberals in February 2015. The move was more practical than ideological as the Conservative Party had indicated that they did not want her to run for the party in the coming election. There were questions about her questionable tactics in vying for the Conservative nomination in Oakville North-Burlington.
Some of the same questions have now come to light in Eglinton-Lawrence. It seems that the media are reporting questionable memberships being signed up by the Adams campaign. There are the usual counter charges from the Adams campaign about the Medicino campaign.
Lawyer Marco Mendicino had a good head start on the Adams campaign in signing up new Liberal Party members. So the counter charges might just be pro-forma. You never know. He also has broad support from people such as Mike Colle, the Liberal MPP for the Eglinton-Lawrence area at Queen’s Park.
The battle lines seem to be drawn between the right wing of the party as centred at Queen’s Park and the left wing Liberal politicos across the city. The most interesting aspect of this is the presence of Kathleen Wynne’s political campaign guru, Tom Allison, running Eve Adams’ campaign for the nomination. With Wynne’s riding just across Yonge Street from Eglinton-Lawrence, it raises some interesting questions about Wynne’s friendly relations with Mike Colle. He might not be in the cabinet soon.
But the real question today is the outcome for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and his campaign team. He was the one who promoted the idea of Eve Adams running against Conservative Joe Oliver. His strategy is obviously based on picking up the soft Conservative vote from the voters deserting the Harper Tories in the coming election. That might be a winning approach if at the same time he can stop The NDP’s Mulcair from picking up disgruntled left-wing Liberals. Who said politics is easy?
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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