Nomination contenders accuse Conservatives of skipping nomination process in Brampton

Two Brampton men allege the Conservative Party bypassed the nomination process in favour of appointing candidates to run in the city’s ridings, pushing them to join the Liberal Party instead — and take their supporters along with them. 

Gurminder Gill and Babbu Sran say they submitted their nomination applications months ago to become the Conservative candidates in Brampton North—Caledon and Brampton Centre, respectively, but never received a response from the party. 

Both said they found out they weren’t successful candidates when the federal election was called and the Conservatives announced their slate of candidates. 

“What’s the reason? Why is there no nomination or nothing?” Gill said. “They didn’t tell us anything.”

Now, they say they’re leaving the party behind to become members of the Liberal Party instead after supporting the Conservatives for more than a decade.

The two men hosted an event in Brampton Saturday to thank the people they signed up as members of the Conservative Party of Canada, where they encouraged them to support the Liberals instead.  

Gill said he feels the process is “totally unfair,” especially after putting in many hours to rally support for the party. 

He said he feels the Conservatives are not doing “justice to their members.” 

Sran said he feels the same. 

“Right now, transparency and democracy is done in the Conservative Party,” he said.

“Backroom politics, it’s not good for anyone.”

On Saturday, Gill and Sran said they weren’t planning on seeking candidacy for the Liberals in the upcoming federal election. 

A spokesperson for the Conservative campaign declined to comment on the party’s reasons the individuals were not permitted to run. 

“That said, applicants must be honest in their application packages,” the spokesperson said, adding that the candidates running for the Conservatives — Amandeep Judge in Brampton North—Caledon and Taran Chahal in Brampton Centre will “make excellent representatives.” 

According to the Elections Canada website, Judge and Chahal are currently the only confirmed candidates running in the federal election for those ridings. 

However, the Liberal Party of Canada’s website says Ruby Sahota is running to reclaim her seat as an MP for Brampton North—Caledon, while Amandeep Sodhi is running for the party in Brampton Centre. 

There are no candidates listed for either riding on the NDP or Green Party websites. 

The parties have until 2 p.m. ET on Monday to finalize their nominated candidates.

Not uncommon for parties to handpick candidates: professor 

It’s not uncommon for political party leadership to handpick which candidates they want running, despite the appearance of an open and fair nomination process, said Lori Turnbull, a politics professor in the faculty of management at Dalhousie University.

“In practice, parties are gatekeepers. Parties have the right to decide who’s going to carry the banner, and I think there’s democratic value to that,” she said. 

“Parties should be able to say that that prospective candidate either represents our values or they don’t, and therefore we approve or we don’t.”

Ultimately, it comes down to which person the party thinks stands the best chance of winning in an election, she said. 

“The leader wants to win, the party wants to win, that goal of success — as many seats as the party can win at the election — nothing is going to override that.”