Ontario Liberals caught cheating

By Ian Connerty

More ballots were counted than there were voters.

Voters were getting phone calls while they were voting.

And many took pictures of their ballot to record how they voted, which is widely accepted as a sure sign of corruption.

None of this is allowed in a real election; but its all OK with the Ontario Liberals

Then, within minutes of this sham vote, Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said it was all legit.

Are we living in a banana republic?

As Premier Ford noted, “If you can’t run a nomination meeting you can’t be trusted  to run the government.”

Now,  a Liberal-controlled whitewash is scheduled after the losing candidate Nate Erskine-Smith filed an official complaint If the party rejects his complaint will he then charge the party with fraud in a real court?

I believe it was fraud.

Most Canadians think that when you nominate someone to run in a Federal or Provincial election the voters in the room are also eligible to vote in the  election. That means being a Canadian  citizen over 18 with ID to prove who you are and where you live.

But that’s not required by the Ontario Liberal Party. Non-citizens and 14 year-olds are allowed to  vote. And you don’t even need any proof of who you  are or where you live.

That’s absurd, and it puts the entire political process in disrepute.

Nate Erskine Smith, a very successful politician, lost by 19 votes. He won 4 straight Federal elections in the next door riding, the last time by an astounding  25,000 votes. He came a close second to Bonnie Crombie in the last Liberal Leadership contest.

The Liberals have been a bad third in Scarborough Southwest in the last two elections. A star candidate like Erskine Smith might have won for them next time.

But this time, he was beaten by cheating.

Political parties are currently allowed to make up any rules they want just like book clubs. But choosing a future member of the Legislature is much more important than choosing the next book to read.

There ought to be a law to clean up nomination meetings; but that would require politicians to pass it. There’s not much chance of that happening.

So, we are stuck with fraud and corruption.

Ian Connerty Is a former Liberal Party organizer and senior advisor to Federal and Provincial Cabinet Ministers