Ben Levitt won the nomination for Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives in a Hamilton-area riding after the vote was held for a second time, nearly a year after he first won the contest in a meeting plagued by allegations of fraud and ballot stuffing.
After what turned into an 18-month campaign for his party’s nomination and now involves a criminal investigation by Hamilton police into the nomination meeting held last May, Mr. Levitt said on Tuesday night that he was relieved that he would be carrying the Tory banner into the general election, expected on June 7.
“I called for this new nomination because the PC Party ran a flawed process,” said Mr. Levitt, who added that the local riding had been “tarnished” by the past year of allegations surrounding the now annulled nomination meeting.
The three challengers who faced Mr. Levitt last year were not on Tuesday’s ballot – one of his main challengers was barred from running in the race by an internal party committee while another said he had no trust in the process. Instead, Mr. Levitt squared off with Vincent Samuel, who had served as Doug Ford’s organizer in the Hamilton area during the PC Leader’s successful race to head his party. Mr. Levitt won with 736 votes to Mr. Samuel’s 195, according to the winner’s campaign manager, who is also the president of the riding.
Vikram Singh, a local lawyer who sought last year’s nomination, had intended to run again before his candidacy was rejected by PC officials. Mr. Singh said he was given no reason for the decision and the party has refused to comment, calling it an internal process.
“The party made a decision that they feel is in the best interest of the community, but I remain committed to Hamilton,” Mr. Singh said on Tuesday.
Before voting started, Mr. Samuel thanked Mr. Singh for undertaking legal action after last year’s nomination meeting. “He fought in the courts for over a year so that we could have a fair nomination,” Mr. Samuel said. “People were disenfranchised. It’s for them that we are here.”
Many at the meeting on Tuesday said it was far less chaotic than last year’s contest, which involved hour-long lineups to vote. A number of people were visibly angry over the course of the evening when they were unable to cast their ballots because the party could not verify their membership. Voters often need to have their credentials checked when poll clerks can’t find them on membership lists or when one of the campaigns challenges the voter’s credentials.
“It’s much better, but they still have a lot of mistakes on the list,” said Liaqat Ali, who had to have his credentials verified so that he could vote.
Iqra Sajid, 14, went to the Hamilton-area hall on Tuesday evening to cast her first ballot in an election. However, when she was sent to have her papers checked by the party, officials said she couldn’t vote because she didn’t have the right ID, which would include her address. Her mother had brought along the girl’s last report card and a recent dental bill, but the party accepted neither as proper identification.
“This is the first time in my life I could vote and I can’t vote. That sucks,” said Iqra.
The girl’s mother said she was angry at the party’s decision. “I’m really not feeling good,” said Fehmida Sajid.
Mr. Samuel said that challenging people’s credentials is commonplace at nomination meetings. “It’s a standard thing when the other campaign wants to cause trouble, delay people and distract them,” he said.
During a confrontation around the credentials line, a young woman was asked to leave the hall by party officials after alleging that scrutineers were showing bias because most of the people sent for additional verification were ethnic voters.
Over the weekend, Mr. Ford appointed 11 candidates in ridings where nominations had yet to be scheduled. On Monday, he blamed his predecessor, Patrick Brown, for leaving him with a mess.
“I want to emphasize, I hate, hate, appointing people,” Mr. Ford said. “Unfortunately, the mess that was handed to us from the previous leadership was quite the disaster, to be frank.”
A number of Tory nomination candidates complained about Mr. Ford’s decision to not hold local votes. After a two-year campaign for the party’s nomination in a London riding, Jake Skinner said he was “in a state of shock,” by the leader’s appointment of another candidate.
After his tumultuous win as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, Doug Ford sets out to begin his campaign before the provincial election on June 7, 2018.
Justin Giovannetti