Some Windsor Tories critical of how federal election candidates chosen

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Some local Conservative Party of Canada members are slamming as undemocratic the way their party chose two Windsor area candidates to run in the federal election now underway.

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With Liberal Leader Mark Carney on Sunday calling a snap federal election for April 28, the Conservatives’ national leadership opted to bypass the traditional nomination route of having ballot-casting members choose two local candidate contenders.

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For Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, the party selected Mark McKenzie, who represents Ward 4 on city council, and in Windsor West, it selected Harbinder Gill, a retired LaSalle police officer. In Essex, Tory incumbent Chris Lewis is seeking re-election.

Online, some have expressed disappointment with the party’s selection process, saying they would have rather seen their riding undertake the more conventional method of allowing local party members to elect nominees.

“I became a (party) member so I could vote for a candidate of my choosing and donate to the cause,” Erin Seney wrote in a Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore Conservative Association Facebook post. “I’ll be sure to not make that mistake in the future.”

Another commenter, James Green, said the way the candidate was selected in his riding was “undemocratic,” and added: “Kudos to the several well-meaning candidate applicants who were never given a chance to shine in an organized and fair selection process.”

Representatives from the Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore and Windsor West Conservative electoral district associations (EDAs) told the Star that party headquarters opted to pick candidates because of the early writ drop.

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For both electoral districts, “the candidates were selected from the many submitted applications, and (the) national was aware of all applicants for consideration from each riding,” Al Teshuba, vice-president of the federal Conservatives’ Windsor West EDA, said in an email to the Star.

“National used their best discretion based upon such to make the final decision for each riding” in accordance with CPC nomination rules — rules that state the national party will select candidates if the writ is dropped before a riding holds a nomination meeting, Teshuba said. 

Paul Borrelli, president of the Conservative party’s Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore electoral district association, said organizing nomination meetings is a long and “labour-intensive” process, one that requires participation from national party representatives. Even though rumour of an early election had been circulating for weeks, the party wouldn’t have been able to hold nomination meetings fast enough, he said.

Borrelli said more than 90 of Canada’s 343 electoral districts were without Conservative candidates when the election was called on Sunday.

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“Because it was a snap election and the situation required immediate attention from the national, we didn’t go through the normal process,” he said.

The Conservative Party of Canada did not respond to the Star’s request for comment.

University of Windsor political scientist Lydia Miljan called the nomination process “such a bizarre thing” and said she doesn’t think voters typically understand the minutiae of the process.

“Parties are quasi-public organizations, which means they’re also private organizations,” she said. “They can organize themselves however they choose.

“I think what the Conservatives are hoping is, they want to be the first out of the gate to field the full 343 candidates, and I think they are leading the pack on that. It’s about getting the name on the ballot. It’s probably the most important thing. How they got the ballot is not the issue that people vote for.”

As recently as Friday afternoon, James Dorner was putting out a call for volunteers to help canvass Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore on Saturday and support “my campaign to be our next Conservative Candidate and Member of Parliament.”

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On Sunday night, however, after weeks of a stepped-up effort of knocking on doors and reaching out to potential voters, came word that Dorner’s party had appointed McKenzie to be the Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore Tory candidate.

I’m not bitter, there’s no hard feelings

“I think the process should have been the traditional way,” Dorner told the Star on Tuesday, referring to a nomination process in which party members in the riding vote to determine who their candidate should be.

But Dorner, a Tecumseh town councillor, is taking the high road, fully endorsing McKenzie, the city councillor.

“I’m not bitter, there’s no hard feelings — I am completely supportive of Mark’s campaign,” he said.

While “untraditional,” perhaps, he said the process leading up to the current federal campaign — the Liberal prime minister suddenly stepping down and an election call coming shortly after members of the governing party voted in a new leader — was itself untraditional.

Dorner said he reached out to McKenzie already on Monday morning, offering his election campaign support. When it comes to those who had been vying to run as the Conservative candidate, he added: “At the end of the day, we all want the same thing.”

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The Star was unable to reach McKenzie for comment on Tuesday.

A phone survey that recently circulated in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore asked respondents which of several potential candidates they would support, including McKenzie, Dorner, and Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, who told the Star he was not seeking the nomination.

“I’ve been asked to run for the Conservatives and the Liberals in the past,” Dilkens told the Star. “It’s just what happens once you’re on city council and then in the mayor’s chair. I’ve always said I love serving as mayor.”

In a social media post on Monday, Mark Lambert, who was seeking the nomination in Windsor West, thanked his supporters and asked them to support candidate Gill going forward.

“Unfortunately, I was not selected and there wasn’t the opportunity for you to vote for me,” Lambert wrote.

— With files from Doug Schmidt

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