Battle for the ballot: Inside the bitter nominations that divided the Ontario PCs
The Globe and Mail
Karen Howlett and Jill Mahoney
18 May 2018
Former Ontario
PC leader Patrick Brown, seen third from left in the group of men, has
his photo taken by Snover Dhillon, who worked as a campaign organizer
for PC Party hopefuls in at least five ridings. Brandon Ferguson
It was a busy weekend for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.
On the Saturday, after a nearly 500-kilometre bus trip, a group of
Toronto-area residents posed as local voters at a candidate nomination
meeting in Ottawa. The next day, the power broker who led the journey
was working at another vote in Hamilton, where a printer secretly
churned out fake identity papers.
The results of both nominations were bitterly disputed and eventually
overturned, along with four other votes. The Tories have never
explained those decisions, or what happened inside the party over the
last 19 months – how nomination battles were gamed under the
supervision of senior officials, alienating party loyalists and
attracting the attention of criminal investigators.
New leader Doug Ford says he’s dealt with the disputed nominations that
happened under his predecessor Patrick Brown and is focusing on the
future. However, questions remain about how some candidates were
selected to carry the PC banner. Nomination races, despite being a
cornerstone of Canada’s democracy, are not overseen by federal or
provincial electoral watchdogs.
A Globe and Mail examination of contentious PC nomination races found
widespread evidence of interference in the local democratic process.
The most egregious cases involved alleged ballot-box stuffing,
ineligible voters and fake memberships. In others, the process appeared
to have been manipulated to benefit favoured candidates. Voting dates
were moved up, information was withheld by top officials and the
screening of contenders was stalled, according to unsuccessful
candidates and local riding associations.
There is evidence Snover Dhillon, a businessman convicted of fraud and
deemed persona non grata by federal Conservatives, played an
influential role in many of the disputed provincial votes, including in
Ottawa and Hamilton. The Globe investigation found that Mr. Dhillon
worked as a campaign organizer for party hopefuls in at least five
ridings. One of Mr. Dhillon’s clients, Brampton East candidate Simmer
Sandhu, dropped out of the race earlier this week, after his former
employer reported an “internal theft” of 60,000 customers’ names and
addresses.
Mr. Ford told reporters on Friday he will not call for an external
probe into whether other PC candidates may have been involved. York
Regional Police are investigating the data breach. A police
investigation into alleged fraud at a PC nomination race in Hamilton is
also ongoing.
The Globe interviewed four dozen party insiders about the disputed
nominations and obtained internal documents, including e-mails, formal
appeals and some membership lists. A data analysis of the lists found
numerous red flags: more than two dozen fake members at one Ottawa
apartment building linked to Mr. Dhillon or his associates, and large
numbers of people with the same address.
Mr. Brown did not respond to the Globe’s request to comment. He
previously declined to overturn nomination decisions after the party
received complaints.
The potential for abuse at the nomination level has been repeatedly
identified as an issue across the political spectrum at the provincial
and federal levels. The alleged vote-rigging demonstrates that the
process for selecting candidates must be monitored and regulated the
same way as general elections, says Christopher Cochrane, a political
science professor at the University of Toronto.
“The democratic process is only as strong as the weakest link.”
From the start of his leadership, Mr. Brown promised to broaden the
appeal of PC Party with a slate of candidates that were youthful,
gender balanced and ethnically diverse. He said there would be open and
competitive nomination battles.
Competitive nomination battles, as opposed to officials appointing a
candidate, generate funds for the party –$10 per member – while
building an invaluable database of supporters ahead of the general
election.
But political parties face a dilemma when it comes to selecting a slate
of candidates, says Prof. Cochrane. They want the process to appear
democratic and locally-run; however, party leaders also have preferred
candidates.
“You can have a debate about whether the central party apparatus should
have more control over selecting candidates or if riding associations
should be the ones doing it. I don’t think you’d find much disagreement
that it ought to be a transparent process,” he said.
Transparency is central to the controversy that has enveloped the
Tories. Numerous would-be candidates and members have accused senior
party executives of manipulating local races by leading on candidates
in hopes they would sell memberships, while giving an advantage to
preferred winner.
Allegations of unfair treatment emerged in the PC Party’s very first
nomination race under Mr. Brown. Tories in Carleton, a new riding in
rural south Ottawa, elected a candidate back in November of 2016, long
before anyone was paying much attention to a provincial election that
was still 19 months away.
The area, traditionally a Tory stronghold, attracted five candidates,
including Jay Tysick, a managing partner of a lobbying and
communications firm. He announced his intention to run in early
October, 2016 and waited to be vetted by the party, a critical approval
that would allow him access to the riding’s membership list.
As he tried to rally support, Mr. Tysick began to worry when the date
of the nomination meeting was bumped up twice. A week before the
meeting, the party told Mr. Tysick his candidacy was rejected. No
reason was given. Goldie Ghamari won the nomination. She did not
respond to a request for comment.
“It was clear the fix was in,” said Mr. Tysick, who left the party to
run as a candidate in Carleton under the Ontario Alliance banner.
A similar controversy erupted that same month in Burlington, a riding
the party lost in the 2014 election to the Liberals. Former MPP Jane
McKenna was the first to declare her candidacy, hoping to reclaim her
old job. Her only rival was Jane Michael, chair of the Catholic school
board.
In the summer, Ms. Michael told the party’s executive director, Bob
Stanley, she intended to seek the nomination. He encouraged her to run,
she said, but also said he hoped Ms. McKenna could be acclaimed. Mr.
Stanley declined comment, as did Ms. McKenna.
For nearly five months, Ms. Michael waited to be vetted by the party’s
nominating committee. She said she was only interviewed and approved
the night before the vote, leaving her no time to contact the riding’s
more than 900 party members.
After the vote, Colin Pye, then chair of the riding association,
alleged in a letter to the party that the meeting was “tainted” by
numerous breaches of party rules. He alleges that several people who
were not on the membership list were permitted to vote without proper
identification; unused ballots were left unguarded at one point; and
the room where ballots were counted was not secured. He asked for a
formal hearing and a new vote, but was rebuffed.
Mr. Pye resigned his position. “The whole mess around the nomination race left a very bad taste in my mouth.”
Snover Dhillon,
second from the left, attended the PC Party’s most contentious
nomination battle at the Ottawa West-Nepean nomination in May last year.
Handout
Around the same time, Snover Dhillon, a power broker and friend of Mr.
Brown, was quietly helping the PC Party make inroads among voters of
Indian descent mainly in the suburbs west of Toronto.
He was also a frequent presence at party events, attending at least a
dozen nomination meetings. His role in many of the races – whether he
was working for candidates or simply attending as a party booster –
remains an open question.
In a recent Facebook posting, Mr. Dhillon said he worked for
contenders, providing volunteers and getting supporters out to vote. He
did not disclose who hired him.
“The candidates hired me to run their nominations, they signed contract
with me and I told them in written statement very clearly that no
acclamation is guaranteed,” he wrote. “… Some candidates won the
election and some lost.”
When reached by phone in late March, Mr. Dhillon asked The Globe to
send him questions by e-mail. He has not responded to multiple requests
for a reply.
The relationship between Mr. Brown and Mr. Dhillon, which dates back
more than a decade, worried the leader’s senior advisors, according to
sources in his former office. The pair had travelled together to India
at least once while Mr. Brown was an MP.
Advisors in Mr. Brown’s office said they warned him to stay away from
Mr. Dhillon, given his criminal record. Mr. Dhillon’s convictions
relate to activities in 2010 - defrauding a bank of $11,500 and a woman
of more than $5,000. He was sentenced to probation. He also served 41
days in jail in connection with a fraudulent real estate deal.
Mr. Dhillon came to the attention of the national media during the 2011
federal election campaign, when he was recognized at a campaign event,
seated behind then Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s family. Mr.
Brown, a Tory MP at the time, said he wasn’t aware of the fraud
allegations. “I like to be supportive of anyone, but obviously I
wouldn’t be supportive of any conduct that is illegal,” he told
Canadian Press. “I’ll obviously keep my distance.”
However, after Mr. Brown became the leader of the PC Party of Ontario
in May, 2015, Mr. Dhillon was frequently seen at Tory events. And when
the nomination races kicked off over a year later, he promoted his
services to would-be candidates.
Mr. Dhillon’s success in helping Jass Johal, a friend, secure the
nomination in a riding where three other contenders were also
interested made Mr. Dhillon a hot commodity, according to party
insiders. Mr. Johal, a paralegal, was acclaimed in Brampton North in
November, 2016.
As the schedule of nomination races picked up – in all, 70 took place
while Mr. Brown was leader – Mr. Dhillon marketed himself as having a
sizable roster of clients. It’s difficult to discern in many cases if
candidates hired Mr. Dhillon or if he simply threw his support behind
them, whether it was welcome or not.
His efforts to bolster the party remain in an online footprint that
includes a poster circulated on social media for an invitation-only
barbecue Mr. Dhillon held in Brampton last summer. The poster featured
Mr. Brown’s photo above a slate of 17 PC Party contenders. Mr. Stanley,
the party’s then executive director who was at the centre of many races
plagued by problems, was listed as a speaker.
The barbecue was billed as an event for Youth for You, a not-for-profit
that Mr. Dhillon had recently incorporated. Sources said no one in Mr.
Brown’s office approved the poster, but he appeared at the event,
giving a speech and posing for photos.
The Globe contacted everyone on the poster who is running in the June 7
election to ask about their connection to Mr. Dhillon, namely, Prabmeet
Singh Sarkaria (Brampton South), Amarjot Sandhu (Brampton West), Sarah
Mallo (Beaches-East York), Kaleed Rasheed (Mississauga
East-Cooksville), Nina Tangri (Mississauga-Streetsville), Parm Gill
(Milton), Rudy Cuzzetto (Mississauga-Lakeshore), Jane McKenna
(Burlington), Stephen Crawford (Oakville), Harjit Jaswal (Brampton
Centre) and Sheref Sabawy (Mississauga-Erin Mills). Only Mr. Crawford
responded, saying he was not aware of the barbecue and Mr. Dhillon did
not work on his campaign. “I did not know my photo would be on this
poster.”
Last summer, Snover Dhillon promoted a BBQ with photos of community
members, as well as several nominated and hopeful candidates for the PC
Party. It’s not known if all of the individuals agreed to be part of
the event, which featured former leader Patrick Brown.
The PC Party’s most contentious nomination battles would also feature Mr. Dhillon as a central character.
On the first Saturday of May last year, Conservatives in the riding of
Ottawa West-Nepean gathered at a suburban high school to choose between
two contenders: Karma Macgregor, a former Tory Senate aide and
businesswoman, and Jeremy Roberts, a young political staffer.
Even before the meeting began, the process had already begun to sour
for Mr. Roberts. It was known among party insiders that Mr. Brown
favoured Ms. Macgregor, in part because of a personal connection – her
daughter was not only one of his aides, but had also once dated him. On
the eve of the nomination, Mr. Roberts had told the party’s president
he was participating in the vote “under protest and with serious
reservations,” citing delays receiving the list of PC Party members in
the riding and concerns about some entries, including several addresses
with seven or more members.
A Globe analysis of the membership list found that more than two dozen
fake members listed at one apartment building had the same names as
people connected to Mr. Dhillon or his associates through social media.
In interviews, two people said they had no idea how their names and
Toronto-area phone numbers ended up on a list of party members in
Ottawa.
“I didn’t talk with anyone about this,” said Meghna Randhawa, a student
who knows one of Mr. Dhillon’s associates. “I’m shocked. … I never
heard of these elections.”
In addition, sources allege Mr. Dhillon, who was working for Ms.
Macgregor, bused people from the Greater Toronto Area to vote at the
nomination meeting.
After voting started, local party stalwarts began to notice an
unfamiliar face – who they later learned was Mr. Dhillon – escorting
groups of young people. Instead of directing them to vote at the
standard alphabetical registration stations, Mr. Dhillon took them to
the credentials table, which is normally where voters are sent after
encountering snags such as problems with their identification. The
credentials desk was staffed by two of Mr. Brown’s aides and overseen
by Mr. Stanley.
One small group of people who arrived with Mr. Dhillon stayed the
entire time the polls were open, recalled Carlos Naldinho, a party
activist who was at the meeting.
“They kept going into the voting area then coming into the common area,” he said.
Sources told The Globe that Ms. Macgregor did not authorize Mr.
Dhillon’s actions. She did not respond to questions from The Globe.
In addition, scrutineers with Mr. Roberts’s campaign raised a host of
concerns, including that officials accepted questionable
identification, such as cellphone photos of ID.
Once the vote counting began, the problems escalated. Two boxes,
including the one from the credentials desk, contained ballots that had
been folded together in a clump – apparent evidence of ballot-box
stuffing. “They couldn’t have landed that way in the box,” said Rob
Elliott, a party vice-president who helped count the credentials
ballots. A total of 17 votes were disqualified.
However, the credentials box also had 28 more ballots than registration
forms filled out at that table, according to riding association
officials.
Despite objections from the Roberts campaign, Mr. Stanley accepted the
results of the credentials ballot box, which tipped the race in Ms.
Macgregor’s favour by just 15 votes.
Mr. Roberts’ supporters vigorously challenged the results. But Mr.
Stanley eventually declared Ms. Macgregor the winner. He declined to
comment on the nominations when contacted by the Globe.
“I had never in my life – in all my years in politics – seen such
blatant fraudulent activity as I saw that day,” said Marjory LeBreton,
a former Conservative senator who has been involved in politics since
John Diefenbaker was prime minister. “It was just unbelievable.”
A few weeks later, the riding association quit en masse.
“The whole mess around the nomination race left a very bad taste in my mouth.”
— Colin Pye, a former riding association chair
News about the Ottawa irregularities travelled fast as outraged Tories
phoned contacts in other parts of the province – including those
involved in another nomination vote that was happening the next day in
Hamilton.
The race in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas was hard fought between Ben
Levitt, a political aide for a federal Tory MP; Vikram Singh, a lawyer;
Jeff Peller, whose family owns the Peller Estates winery.
At the high school where the vote was held, veteran strategist John
Mykytyshyn noticed Mr. Dhillon, who was working for Mr. Peller’s
campaign, in the parking lot greeting large coaches as busloads of
voters arrived.
Behind the scenes, The Globe has learned, a printer was cranking out
fake Rogers utility bills and Scotiabank statements in a classroom,
according to multiple sources.
Party rules require voters to present photo ID and proof of address.
The fake I.D. enabled people who were not eligible to vote to cast
ballots.
Officials eventually figured out the alleged scam when they noticed
voters using Rogers and Scotiabank statements with identical account
numbers and balances, according to party members who were present.
Later there would also be questions about whether votes were cast illegally on behalf of people who did not attend.
Jacob Trenholm, a management consultant, said a Hamilton detective
contacted him in January, 2018, and told him police had a list that
showed him casting a ballot. Mr. Trenholm had bought a membership at
the request of Mr. Levitt, a friend from high school, but did not
attend the nomination meeting. “I was surprised and felt uncertain as
to what had happened because it felt wrong,” he said.
As in Ottawa, irregularities also occurred in Hamilton at the
credentials table, which was staffed by aides to Mr. Brown and overseen
by then party president Rick Dykstra. He did not respond to requests
for comment.
Mr. Singh had the most votes at the standard stations, but Mr. Levitt
received 202 out of the 345 ballots from the credentials table, pushing
him to victory, according to a lawsuit Mr. Singh later filed. He
alleged the meeting was tainted by party officials’ predetermination
that Mr. Levitt would win and by “fraudulent ballot stuffing.”
An e-mail later obtained by the Toronto Star appears to suggest Mr.
Brown directed his top officials to influence the outcome of the vote.
“Let them all fight it out. And get me the result I want. But no
disqualifications here. Kitchen is too hot,” Mr. Brown e-mailed Mr.
Stanley just days before the meeting. “Got it,” Mr. Stanley replied.
Hamilton Police launched an investigation into allegations of forgery
and fraud in June, 2017, in response to a complaint from Mr. Singh. A
Hamilton detective has also interviewed key players from the Ottawa
West-Nepean nomination meeting in recent months, The Globe has learned.
Mr. Peller also launched a lawsuit, alleging ballot-box stuffing. He
and Singh both eventually reached settlements with the party. The Globe
has reported that members of Mr. Brown’s inner circle discussed a
possible settlement for Mr. Peller that included $130,000 to cover his
campaign expenses, including $22,000 he had paid to Mr. Dhillon. It
references “various illegal activities.” No further details were given.
“We ran a clean campaign,” Mr. Peller said, adding he hired Mr. Dhillon to sell memberships in the Indian community.
“I had never in my life – in all my years in politics – seen such blatant fraudulent activity as I saw that day.”
— Marjory LeBreton, former Conservative senator
Just one week after the chaotic back-to-back Ottawa and Hamilton votes,
Mr. Brown and Mr. Dhillon socialized together at a party for college
students in Brampton.
Mr. Brown’s presence at the party, which featured a buffet, DJ and
Punjabi singer, was a surprise even to the hosts. He delivered a few
words to the crowd and posed for photos. Afterward in the parking lot,
a smiling Mr. Brown posed for a selfie with Mr. Dhillon and Mr. Johal,
among others.
Shortly after, Mr. Brown made it clear he had no intention of
revisiting any of the disputed races. At a party executive meeting on
June 3, he announced the party would not hear any appeals and that
accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers would oversee future meetings.
Rob Elliott, the party vice-president, resigned that day over the
decision. “I felt that those appeals needed to be heard and there were
legitimate questions to be asked,” he said.
In January, Mr. Brown was forced to resign amid allegations of sexual
misconduct involving two young women, which he has denied. Interim
leader Vic Fedeli was left to deal with the fallout over nomination
races plagued by complaints and the party’s inflated membership
numbers. Mr. Brown boasted that the party’s ranks swelled to 200,000
from 10,000 under his leadership.
Pledging to “root out the rot,” Mr. Fedeli overturned two nominations,
including Ottawa West-Nepean, and eliminated Bob Stanley’s position.
Mr. Fedeli also ordered a probe into the names and addresses of all the
party’s members. He later announced that the database contained just
over 132,000 names, but he never got an opportunity to complete the
review.
In March, Doug Ford became leader. The party overturned four nomination
races, including Brampton North, where Jass Johal had been acclaimed,
and Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas. It also barred Mr. Brown from
running as a Tory candidate.
At the same time, Mr. Johal and Mr. Dhillon were swept up in a probe by
the province’s ethics watchdog, who ruled that Mr. Brown broke
integrity rules by failing to disclose a $375,000 loan from Mr. Johal.
Mr. Dhillon witnessed a promissory note for the loan during a meeting
with Mr. Johal and Mr. Brown that summer, the report says.
The party has tried to move forward. After a new race was ordered in
Ottawa West-Nepean, Jeremy Roberts was acclaimed as the candidate. In
Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, Mr. Levitt won a new vote.
“Anything that happened under the previous leader is in the past and
our party is moving forward,” Melissa Lantsman, a spokeswoman for Mr.
Ford.
But the problematic nominations continue to haunt Ford, who just this
week lost a candidate. Simmer Sandhu, who worked for the company that
owns the 407 toll highway, dropped out because he did not want to be a
distraction. He said allegations made against him relating both to his
work and campaign are “totally baseless.”
Mr. Ford’s spokeswoman also said this week that Mr. Stanley has been
told he is “not welcome to be a part of our campaign in any role –
official or unofficial.”
With files from Justin Giovannetti, research by Stephanie Chambers and data analysis by Tom Cardoso
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