Doug Craig needs waiver to run for Tories

Outgoing Cambridge mayor made sure he was non-partisan — and that presents a problem

CAMBRIDGE — There’s a catch to Doug Craig’s bid to run for the federal Conservatives in Cambridge next fall.

The city’s outgoing mayor hasn’t been a party member for six months.

That means Craig, who says he has not been a member of any party during his 18 years as mayor, must get a special party waiver to successfully seek the riding nomination.

The two-week application process likely opens in January. On Friday, Craig was in the process of applying online for a party membership.

“There is a provision in our nomination rules that anyone seeking the nomination has to be a member for six months — the six months preceding the nomination,” Conservative Party of Canada spokesperson Cory Hann said in a phone interview from Ottawa.

“There is a waiver that people can apply for, if under special circumstances where they may not have been a member due to holding a job or position that required them to be neutral or non-partisan. It’s not highly unusual for a waiver to be sought in some cases.”

Craig, who has two more weeks left in his fifth consecutive term as city mayor, said going into the weekend that he was not previously aware of the membership stipulation.

But he didn’t view it as a significant obstacle to his bid for the nomination, which he decided to make on Remembrance Day.

“I don’t expect it to be an issue because I was phoned by the nominating chair and he asked me to run — well, he encouraged me to run,” Craig said of his conversation with the nomination committee chair for the party’s riding association, Lillo Ognibene.

“I would assume they knew all this, you know what I mean? So I think we’re fine.”

Craig, whose long run as mayor ends Dec. 3, said Friday he has avoided political affiliation since he began as mayor in 2000.

“I haven’t joined a party nor have I joined any of the Rotary clubs — although I’m always constantly being asked,” Craig said.

“I left all of that just to be neutral.”

The nomination process, Hann said, will likely officially open after the Christmas holidays. Riding association members will be notified when it does.

Craig and any other applicants will then have two weeks to fill

out a full application and pay a $1,000 deposit — to be returned so long as there was “good conduct” throughout the process.

As well, Craig must get the signatures or endorsements of 25 current members of the Cambridge riding.

Hann figures there are at least a few hundred Tory members in

the Cambridge association.

If more than one person successfully applies for the riding nomination, a nomination vote will be scheduled 42 to 54 days after the application period closes. The nomination could be decided as early as February.

“Our intention is to get candidates in place as soon as we can,” Hann said.