News
Ottawa This Week - Nepean - MAY 26, 2011
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Candidates left in cold in wake of Denley announcement JENNIFER MCINTOSH jennifer.mcintosh@metroland.com
Randall Denley may be billed as a star candidate, but some of the former nomination candidates from Ottawa West-Nepean are feeling less than stellar. Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak flew into Ottawa on May 17 to announce the candidacy of Denley, saying he was proud his party was attracting his calibre of candidates. Up to the surprise announcement, nomination hopefuls Brent Colbert, Beth Graham and Ade Olumide were still gathering memberships and knocking on doors. Olumide, former president of the Ottawa Taxpayer’s Advocacy Group, said that he was initially approached by a member of the party two weeks before the announcement, encouraging him to step down for the (unknown at the time) “star candidate.” “I initially declined the request and said I would still stand up for nomination as long as I had supporters,” Olumide said, a day after the Denley announcement. A week later, members from the party attempted to contact
“We don’t pick our candidates in backroom deals. ” Tim Hudak PC Party leader
Olumide again, but he refused the meeting. On May 17, Olumide was informed by the president of the Ontario PC party that he wouldn’t be able to contest the party nomination in Ottawa West-Nepean. “I was informed that they will ‘find another venue’ for me to be part of the 2011 team,” he said. While Olumide said he plans to back Denley if he is named the candidate, he said he wants to shed light on what he feels is a flawed process. “I spent six months knocking on doors in the rain, drumming up memberships,” he said. “When I was pondering to put my name up for nomination in January they should have told me about this star candidate.
I looked at Beth and Brent and I felt I could win, that’s why I ran.” Olumide said he had 500 nomination signatures, more than the 150 each of the other two candidates. “I felt sure I was going to win, until this happened,” he said. Long-time Ottawa West-Nepean Ontario Conservative riding association member Geoffrey Sharpe called the naming of Denley, a “basic affront to democracy.” Sharpe, who makes no bones about having supported Beth Graham — the candidate of record for the conservatives in the March 2010 provincial byelection, compared the party’s treatment to “getting kicked in the groin.” “Beth worked really hard and managed to whittle down the liberal vote in Ottawa West-Nepean,” he said. “She was only 1,200 (1,267) votes behind Chiarelli, a far cry from the 2007 election.” Sharpe said when Graham received the party nomination in 2010, Mike Patton’s supporters got behind her, because the process was done properly. “I don’t see that happening in this case,” he said.
Sharpe added that he received a letter in the mail from the Ontario PC party stating that nomination deadline was May 23 at 5 p.m. Sharpe said the letter was posted a day before the Denley announcement. “That’s just spitting in the face of the other nomination candidates,” he said. Graham chose to step down on May 18. “This was not my first choice,” she said in a press release “But I believe that it is in the best interests of the future of our province that we stand united as Progressive Conservatives in our fight to replace Premier McGuinty’s Liberals.” Graham encouraged her supporters to stand behind Denley. Colbert announced his resignation from the race on May 16 with a message on his website. “Unfortunately it has been decided that someone else will seek and win the nomination for the Ontario PC Party in Ottawa West-Nepean,” he said. “I remain loyal and dedicated to our leader Tim Hudak who I know will be a great leader.” The conservatives took a hit in Carleton-Mississippi Mills after Ontario Landowners Association activist Jack MacLaren
defeated veteran MPP Norm Sterling. When asked about the process in that riding during a talk at a Greater Nepean Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Hudak said that he didn’t want to interfere with grassroots campaigning. “We don’t pick our candidates in backroom deals,” he said. Jon Pammet, a political scientist at Carleton University, said that while it is not unheard of for members of party leadership to engineer nominations, it is generally avoided. “Generally the parties are reluctant to do it because it gets noticed and reflects on the local democracy,” he said. “Parties are losing members because very few people join political parties now and if you take away the option to run for a local nomination there is even less chance that people will sign up,” he said. Pammett added that while he didn’t know much about the local situation, he said that party leaders would have to weigh the positive aspects of name recognition to offset any negativity over the process. See ‘Candidates’, page 5
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