PC candidate calls for audit of riding list
Concerns about legitimacy of many names on the list
CAMBRIDGE — A newcomer in the race to represent the Tories in Cambridge is calling on the Ontario PC Party to audit more than 2,500 memberships sold in the riding — saying she’s concerned some names on the list appear suspicious.
Belinda Karahalios, who was approved just last week as a candidate for the nomination, sent a lawyer’s letter to the riding association and the PC’s executive asking them to investigate the allegations.
She’s among critics who contend some of the names on the local list may not be legitimate PC party supporters at all — and were either pulled from a phone book, signed up without their knowledge or fabricated entirely.
“There’s concern that valid PC party members, actual residents of Cambridge, are they really going to be represented in this nomination?” Karahalios said. “We want real people who have paid for their own memberships.”
There are a few red flags with
the list, she said. Karahalios points out that of the more than 2,500 party memberships registered in Cambridge, only about 600 voted in the recent leadership campaign — making her wonder where everyone else went. “That’s well below the party average across the province,” she said.
Cambridge’s membership list swelled by hundreds of new names when former candidate Tanya Khattra, a Calgary dentist, was aggressively campaigning in the riding. The 2,500 members signed up far surpassed that of any other local PC riding association. The riding association’s president, Rob Leone, declined to comment on the call for an audit, but said the public should be assured the nomination will be fair.
“We will not permit non-residents and those members who have had their memberships purchased on their behalf by someone else to have a vote. The public should have every confidence that this race will be conducted as fairly as possible,” he said, in an email.
Questions about the legitimacy of the Cambridge membership list have been flying for months. During the party’s leadership campaign, leadership contender Tanya Granic Allen singled out the local riding after more than 2,000 paper memberships were submitted by Khattra. In February, while the party was scrutinizing hundreds of those memberships, a campaign volunteer sent a second, altered list with fewer names, claiming it was to correct a formatting error. Karahalios says the simplest way to address concerns is just call everyone on the riding’s list, confirm their address, if they’re a party member and if they paid their own membership fee. She wants any audit finished before the riding’s party members choose their candidate on April 14. Three candidates have been approved to seek that nomination so far — Karahalios, Bert Laranjo and Sunny Attwal. A fourth potential candidate, former Khattra campaign manager Mona Bains, has announced on social media she’d also like to run, but has yet to be approved by the party. Both Laranjo and Attwal say an audit is unnecessary because scrutineers will be verifying voters at the nomination meeting.
“The request is redundant because on April 14th photo ID and proof of residency will need to be presented in order to vote. Plus there will be scrutineers from each campaign monitoring the voting process,” said Dan Muys, Laranjo’s campaign manager, in an email.
But Karahalios says it’s in the party’s interest to vet the membership list before April 14, to avoid any delays that might deter legitimate PC voters. “We want that list audited before the nomination takes place. If we wait until the day of, it will very likely get messy,” she said. “If you get an influx of questionable memberships, and you have a long wait, will that cost valid PC party members their chance to vote?”
Karahalios jumped into the race after the nomination meeting was cancelled by party’s headquarters for a second time. . She’s concerned the party was planning to parachute in a candidate. After months of upheaval, the party needs to put all questions about legitimacy of its nomination to rest, she said.