Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to hand-pick a candidate for a district in the upcoming Montreal by-election is not going down well with three hopefuls who spent months campaigning only to be sidelined.
Last Friday, the Liberals announced that Montreal city councillor Laura Palestini would be the party’s candidate in a yet-to-be-announced by-election for the LaSalle—Émard—Verdun borough. The by-election must be called by July 30.
Three aspiring candidates — local school commissioner Lori Morrison, businessman Christopher Baenninger and former Quebec Liberal Party organizer Eddy Kara — denounced the decision, with Morrison calling it “undemocratic, 100 per cent.”
Morrison said she could not believe the party would let her knock on doors and sign up memberships only to eventually abandon plans for a nomination meeting.
Morrison said the nomination to become the candidate in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun was hotly contested because the district “has been a liberal stronghold for a long, long time.”
Liberal campaign co-chair Soraya Martinez Ferrada said it was Trudeau’s decision to block party members from choosing the candidate and instead select Palestini, who represents the LaSalle ward on Montreal city council. Ferrada was on vacation and was not available for comment Monday, her office said. The party declined to make anyone else available and instead issued a statement.
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The Liberals have won the district in all three elections since its creation, and former Justice Minister David Lametti was re-elected with 42.9 per cent of the vote in 2021. The Bloc Québécois candidate received nearly half of the vote (22.1 per cent), while the New Democratic Party and the Conservatives received 19.4 per cent and 7.5 per cent of the vote, respectively.
Lametti resigned on January 31 after being excluded from Trudeau’s cabinet in last summer’s reshuffle.
Baenninger said she was “shocked” by Trudeau’s decision to forgo the nomination process and hand-pick a candidate, saying it was “not right” and “demotivating.”
Morrison declined to say whether the party was respecting its values by ignoring a nomination vote; Baenninger, for his part, said the decision was in accordance with the rules. The party’s vetting committee, he explained, can reject any candidate in the party’s best interest.
However, Baenninger said the party had done itself no favours by dropping three candidates in favour of Palestini. “I’m going to be clever: we didn’t improve our chances. I’ll leave it at that.”
Trudeau’s leadership has been under scrutiny since the party failed to retain the riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s, a long-standing Liberal stronghold for more than three decades, which was won by the Conservatives on June 24. Nationally, the Liberals have been about 20 points behind the Pierre Poilievre-led Conservatives for more than a year.
Both Baenninger and Morrison said that before the party announced Palestini, they had never heard his name.
Kara, a filmmaker and former provincial organizer for the Liberal Party, was supported by former Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitão and former MP Jean-Claude Poissant. He said it was “really shocking” that Trudeau would cut short the nomination process, adding that the party had sent signals that members would choose the candidate, even publishing a nomination kit.
Kara said she learned that the Liberals wanted someone of Italian descent to “ensure that we get the Italian vote.” Kara said three members of the Liberal Party executive confirmed to her that they were also considering appointing Daniela Romano, another LaSalle city councilor.
According to 2016 census data, 8.2 percent of the district’s residents are of Italian origin.
Palestini will face another municipal councillor in the by-election, as the NDP has nominated Craig Sauvé, who represents the nearby Sud-Ouest district on the municipal council. The Conservatives will field Louis Ialenti, whom the party describes as “a small businessman with common sense.” The Bloc has not revealed its candidate.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
