A commentary by a former View Royal mayor who was, briefly, a federal Liberal candidate.
My attempt to run for Parliament began some 13 months ago and ended abruptly.
One would presume that in a proudly democratic country such as Canada, where differing opinions, personalities, and values are encouraged, that it would not be an enormous challenge to put your name forward for office.
But unfortunately, that is not the case. At every level of our politics, running for office is becoming much more difficult and onerous.
I have a passion for both my country and community, and with 20 years experience in local government, I believed I had something to offer.
That is largely what drove me to put my name forward.
Running for the Liberal party was an easy decision for me. I am a centrist myself and hold the same basic values as the party.
I took out a nomination package and submitted it in December 2023. It was a comprehensive package and included a criminal record check and a credit check.
One of the requirements of the Liberal Party is that every nomination contestant must sign up 25 new monthly donors for the party.
It is an odd scenario, to say the least, when you are asking your friends and colleagues to be monthly donors based on the possibility that you might be approved to be the party’s candidate.
However, I persevered and completed the requirements and sent them $1,000 of my own money so they could consider allowing me to run for them.
Almost a full year after I had initially sent my papers, and following telephone interviews, I was approved as a nomination contestant. Within hours, I was acclaimed by the party as the candidate.
That was on Nov. 19. I expectantly waited for a congratulatory phone call from the party leadership. I also waited for the wealth of information I was sure the party machinery was going to send me including papers on party policies and advice on setting up a campaign team and a campaign.
I received nothing. Our local riding president and I wrote the press release announcing my candidacy and were well on the way to building a first-rate campaign team.
Fast forward to Jan. 17, when the party received an email, from someone not known to me, containing unsubstantiated and unpleasant allegations.
I have been in politics long enough to have seen this type of correspondence before and was confident the Liberal Party will stand by me as their newly acclaimed candidate.
This would not be an unusual situation for a national party. False allegations are levelled against our prime minister and other politicians daily.
A few days later, I was invited to a Zoom meeting with a party volunteer to discuss the email. I assured them I did not know the complainant and, in my opinion, it was a nasty political hatchet job. I acknowledged that in the course of a 20-year political career, not everyone agrees with you and the positions you have taken.
The next morning, I received a letter dismissing me as a Liberal Party candidate.
No explanation was provided. Multiple calls and emails to top party officials were not answered.
I write this because I care deeply about our country and I think we should all be concerned about our politics descending to a level like we see in the United States, where party officials meet behind closed doors and make decisions that impact communities from which they are far removed.
Our politics are becoming polarized and toxic. And if a capable candidate with broad support in the community was treated so callously, I wonder how many otherwise strong candidates just simply don’t bother.
Canadians and Canada should — and must — expect better.
