Liberals finally set a date for riding nomination vote

Voters in the riding of Ahuntsic-Cartierville will soon know who the Liberal candidate will be for the Oct. 19 federal election.

After weeks of delays and allegations the party brass was trying to parachute in former Montreal mayoralty candidate Mélanie Joly, a friend of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, the party has confirmed a full nomination meeting will be held Aug. 23.

Including Joly, there will be a total of four candidates to choose from. Whoever wins faces the formidable task of trying to oust the incumbent riding MP, Maria Mourani, a former Bloc Québécois MP who jumped ship to run for the New Democratic Party. The NDP leads in voter intentions in Quebec.

Not only did Mourani quit the Bloc, she renounced her sovereignist convictions. NDP leader Tom Mulcair was more than happy to take on such a high-profile experienced politician.

The Liberal announcement this week appears to have appeased other candidates in the riding who had expressed concern and anger about the endless wait for a nomination meeting date.

Some have been working the riding for months, drumming up support and selling membership cards. That seems to be water under the bridge now.

“It’s time all Liberals rally behind the winner and go into the election and get the riding back from the Bloc (now NDP)," Liberal candidate Elie Kassissia said in an interview.

In July, Kassissia told Le Devoir he was worried the Liberals would bypass the nomination process to get Joly in.

“There are unfortunately elements of the party who prefer to push one person more than another,” he said.

“But that’s not how democracy works.”

That person was Joly, who came out of the blue in the last municipal election and placed second to Mayor Denis Coderre.

A lawyer and businesswoman, Joly helped with Trudeau’s leadership campaign and has known him and his family for years.

She walked beside him in the annual Fête nationale parade this year.

But the party brass denied playing any favourites and said the delay in Ahuntsic-Cartierville was a logistical issue.

Party spokesperson Olivier Duchesneau insisted that Trudeau promised to hold open nominations for all ridings in Canada and that would happen here, too.

Wednesday, Joly campaign spokesperson, François Fournier, said despite the controversy Joly has been working the riding hard.

“She’s (Joly) personally made 6,000 phone calls.

“… The proof the concerns (of the other candidates) were unfounded is that we’re having a nomination meeting the 23rd. It was always the plan to have a nomination vote.”

Besides Joly and Kassissia, the other two candidates are Grace Batchoun and Viken Attarian.

It will be an election to watch whoever wins. Owing to riding re-distribution, some of Mourani’s old Bloc vote base has disappeared while other streets which traditionally vote Liberal have been added.

Meanwhile, in another hot nomination race, the NDP has announced it will elect its candidate in the riding of Nôtre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount Aug. 16. There are eight candidates vying for the post.