Former journalist drops out of Conservative nomination race, claims the process has been 'corrupted'

A former National Post journalist is bowing out of the race to carry the Con‐ servative Party banner in a Toronto-area riding be‐ cause she says she has "clear evidence of a cor‐ rupted process."

In a social media post Thursday, Sabrina Maddeaux said she's suspending her race for the party's nomina‐ tion in Aurora-Oak RidgesRichmond Hill. She said she has been "the clear target of highly unethical, and potenti‐ al illegal, efforts to sway the vote" because another candi‐ date allegedly had the party's membership list before she did.

"Sadly, I no longer have faith in the election's in‐ tegrity," she said.

WATCH | Former jour‐ nalist drops out of Conserv‐ ative nomination, alleges 'corrupted process'

"I call on the Conservative Party of Canada to secure our democratic nomination process, protect our values and stand up to corrupt cam‐ paigns that show disdain for both."

Maddeaux did not say which candidate allegedly had the membership list.

She suggested a mass email sent to party members in the riding disparaging her candidacy was evidence that someone unfairly had access to the names and contact de‐ tails of local Conservatives in contravention of party rules.

Conservatives call claim 'completely false'

A spokesperson for the party told CBC News Mad‐ deaux's allegations about a competitor and the member‐ ship list are "completely false."

"It's common for the party to receive complaints from nomination candidates about their competitors over suspi‐ cions of wrongdoing and the use of lists," Sarah Fischer said.

"In fact, we received a complaint about Ms. Mad‐ deaux's campaign sending out an email to current and former members of the party when she should not have had access to a membership list."

Conservative sources who spoke to CBC News on the condition they not be named said Maddeaux sold only about 50 memberships in the nomination race - a low num‐ ber that means she likely had no chance of winning the nomination.

"That's not the case," Maddeaux said in an inter‐ view when asked about the claim regarding her member‐ ship sales. "We definitely sold more than 50 memberships." She said later her campaign has sold "over 200" member‐ ships.

Maddeaux said she's not speaking out now because she was poised to lose. She said she would have gone quietly if she lost a contest she perceived as fair.

"This is not the way I wan‐ ted things to go," she said. "It's so difficult and heart‐ breaking. We were actually very confident in our cam‐ paign and our chances of winning."

Asked whether she still supports party leader Pierre Poilievre, Maddeaux said she was inspired to run because of the leader's "vision for change."

"I would still love to sup‐ port that and him as leader, but there still does seem to be some issues within the party apparatus," she said.

Maddeaux was in a tough fight for the York Region rid‐ ing nomination against former MP Costas Mene‐ gakis, who held the riding from 2011 until the party's defeat in the 2015 election.

He ran again in 2019 and 2021 in neighbouring Rich‐ mond Hill and lost both times to a Liberal, something Maddeaux highlighted in a past interview as a reason to pick her instead for the nom‐ ination.

Maddeaux presented herself as a "fresh Conserva‐ tive voice." Menegakis told True North earlier this year he's an "experienced hand at the wheel," while Maddeaux is a political neophyte.

The riding they both were jockeying to represent was held by a Conservative as re‐ cently as 2019, which sug‐ gests it's a winnable seat for the party, given how well the Conservatives are doing in the national polls.

The party membership list is a crucial document dissem‐ inated to prospective party nominees. It's what candi‐ dates use to focus their cam‐ paigns on members who are actually expected to vote, which saves the campaign time and resources.

"If one campaign has this list and others don't, the nomination is effectively rigged in their favour. Every day with an official list is akin to campaigning for weeks without one. That's how sig‐ nificant it is," Maddeaux said.

Under the Conservative Party's rules, the member‐ ship list can only be given to nomination candidates after the "closing notice" is issued, when nominations are closed to other prospective party nominees.

But the party's member list, housed in its Constituent Information Management System (CIMS), has been widely used in election circles in recent years, when the party held three national leadership campaigns and dozens of nomination meet‐ ings for four general elec‐ tions.

Maddeaux alleges a 's‐ mear job'

Maddeaux said she has evidence to suggest that an‐ other unnamed candidate had a list - which includes personal contact details of party members - before the "closing notice" and used it to disseminate disparaging de‐ tails about her to sink her chances of winning.

"A mass email was sent to an updated version of the of‐ ficial membership list that no candidate was allowed to have yet. No one had been greenlit. The subject: "IM‐ PORTANT INFO: Sabrina Mad‐ deaux," she said.

The email, written by someone supposedly named Norman McDaniel, was "a smear job," Maddeaux said.

The email cited her past writings on firearms, former prime minister Stephen Harper, lingerie and Marilyn Monroe and suggested she was out of step with Conserv‐ ative values.

The email told party members the community "deserves better."

"This is a candidate who does not share our values and will embarrass us should she make it to Parliament," the email said. The party con‐ firmed there was no Norman McDaniel in the riding, Mad‐ deaux said.

Maddeaux said the email "purposely mischaracterized" her work and was "inflamma‐ tory."

She asked the party to in‐ vestigate two weeks ago but she has been dissatisfied with their response to her concerns.

Fischer confirmed the party "received a complaint from her campaign about emails being circulated to members in the riding high‐ lighting things Ms. Maddeaux has written and said in the past."

The Conservatives have faced at least two other alle‐ gations of party brass favour‐ ing one candidate over an‐ other in a nomination race.

Last year in Oxford, a rid‐ ing in southwestern Ontario, Arpan Khanna got the nod over the daughter of the out‐ going MP.

That prompted accusa‐ tions that Khanna, who previ‐ ously ran in Brampton, Ont. and served as the co-chair of Poilievre's leadership cam‐ paign, was a parachute can‐ didate who unfairly displaced

a local leader and an antiabortion campaigner.

The party has insisted the race was fair and Khanna easily won the most votes in the nomination.

Khanna went on to win a federal byelection, but by a closer margin than some had expected in the solid Conser‐ vative riding.

Earlier this year, local Conservatives also raised concerns about the party supposedly favouring former Ontario PC MPP Parm Gill to run in a riding in Milton, Ont., according to a report in The Hill Times.

Squabbles over a political party supposedly favouring one candidate over another are not unusual. The Liberals have faced similar claims in the past.

In 2015, Ottawa lawyer David Berstchi sued three se‐ nior Liberal campaign staff after his approval to carry the Liberal banner was revoked.

After Bertschi was knock‐ ed out of the race, former Canadian Forces general An‐ drew Leslie was acclaimed as the candidate in Ottawa-Or‐ leans.