Tories hire private auditors to watch their own nominations
Toronto Star
By Robert Benzie Queens Park Bureau Chief
12 May 2017
Progressive Conservative candidate nominations have become so messy
that riding association presidents are appealing the outcome of at
least two contests, the Star has learned.
In an unusual move, PC activists in the ridings of Newmarket-Aurora and
Ottawa West Nepean have complained in writing to their own party about
irregularities at their recent nomination meetings.
The turmoil has forced Conservative Leader Patrick Brown to retain the
services of private-sector auditors PwC to ensure the integrity of
nominations going forward.
“I’m only going to allow nominations that are certified by PwC to proceed,” Brown told CFRA’s Rob Snow in Ottawa on Thursday.
Auditors from the company — which is also known as
PricewaterhouseCoopers — will be at each of the more than 60 ridings
where PC candidates have yet to be nominated.
With polls suggesting Brown could win the June 7, 2018 election,
would-be Tory candidates have been coming out of the woodwork with more
contested nominations than ever before.
But that has led to serious growing pains.
ballot-box stuffing
Ottawa West Nepean riding association president Emma McLennan wrote to
Brown to express concerns about ballot-box stuffing that allegedly
occurred there last Saturday.
There were 28 more ballots in the boxes than had registered to vote that day.
The eventual victor, Karma Macgregor, topped runner-up Jeremy Roberts
by 15 votes. Party executive director Bob Stanley declared Macgregor
the winner fair and square.
Citing the PC constitution, Roberts has launched a formal appeal of the results.
rules being broken and outright fraudulent behaviour
“My campaign contends that there were numerous instances of both
nomination rules being broken and outright fraudulent behaviour,” he
wrote Thursday in a separate letter to the party also obtained by the
Star.
Roberts said the 28 questionable “ballots were in a box in which we
know that fraud was committed” because 17 others in it were rejected
due to irregularities.
“I will not be pursing this matter in any public forum and wish for
this matter to be dealt with internally through the approved upon
process,” the defeated candidate wrote.
“Our collective goal should be to ensure that the Ontario PC Party is
strengthened and remains a party of high ethical standards in contrast
to the appalling current Ontario government.”
Newmarket-Aurora PC riding association officials are challenging the April 8 nomination of candidate Charity McGrath Di Paolo.
election has been tainted
“The nomination process and election has been tainted by a blatant
breach of the nomination rules,” according to an April 27 letter to
Brown and other party brass from riding association president Derek
Murray and six others.
In their five-page request for an appeal, the Newmarket-Aurora riding
association executive alleged that supporters of rival candidates Tom
Vegh and Bill Hogg “were physically blocked from approaching or
speaking with” Tories being bussed in for the nomination meeting.
Ironically, the internal PC tumult is coming to light the same week as
the party is promising to “enhance fairness in politics and government”
by introducing new accountability measures if elected next year.
Brown, for his part, insisted the snafus are happening because there is
so much excitement surrounding his party, which leads Premier Kathleen
Wynne’s Liberals by double digits in the polls.
“I don’t get involved in nominations,” he said, adding “I want to make
sure the nominations are transparent, fair, and democratic.”
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