Despite the yuck factor, I would vote for Eve Adams

Thank God I can’t vote.

This weekend, Liberal party members in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence will meet to pick the person who will stand as their candidate in this October’s election. It’s a rare nomination meeting certain to capture national, as well as local, attention. That’s because the most prominent candidate is former Conservative MP and dead ringer for the girl-you-couldn’t-standin-high-school Eve Adams. She will be supported by her trusty life partner and PDA machine Dimitri Soudas. He spent his entire adult life burying bodies for Stephen Harper. Now he wants to dig a hole for his former boss.

If there’s a word that accurately captures the contribution this pair has made to Canadian politics it would surely be “yuck.” She has been a thoroughly unimpressive Parliamentarian with a talent for looking wooden and irritating her colleagues with unrestrained ambition. After being stripped of her Conservative Party credentials, she suddenly realized that within her bosom a Liberal heart was beating. On a dime, she renounced the team she had been publicly desperate to remain part of and declared her commitment to the cause of Harper’s defeat as a Liberal candidate.

To those who argue that plenty of good people switch parties, it hardly bears saying that Adams is no Churchill. There was no detectable point of principle behind her defection. She struggled with no specific policy issue or ever expressed any discomfort with the values of the Harper government. In fact, she left only after the Conservatives made it crystal clear that she was unwanted. Her move to the opposition was less a floor-crossing than a bid for asylum.

Still, she practically shines when compared to her partner. For years, Soudas was the guy Harper turned to for jobs the prime minister considered ugly and undignified — such as working with the parliamentary press gallery. Time and again, the most powerful man in Canada picked Soudas to take on prominent positions and exercise enormous power. He raised up this junior aide and made him a player of unavoidable importance. Soudas repaid these repeated acts of confidence with outright betrayal. Told he could not use his position as National Director of the Conservative Party to advance the fortunes of Adams’ nomination, he did exactly that.

Clumsily and unapologetically he broke the promises he made to his lifelong patron and is now working against Harper’s re-election.

With all that in mind, you might think that Liberals in Eglinton-Lawrence have an easy job of things this weekend.

Just cast their votes for Adams’ opponent and give the boot to this unappealing pair of carpetbaggers. Except it’s not quite that simple.

Eve Adams didn’t just appeal for entry into the Liberal Party. Her application was personally received by the leader. Trudeau sat with Adams on national TV. For whatever reason, it was determined that she was a catch — and that the sight of turncoat Soudas might rattle some frayed nerves in the Harper PMO. Who knows, maybe it did.

But now the Liberals have to decide what to do with her. Although the nomination is technically open, early signals clearly identified Adams as the preferred choice. Local Liberals were left to assume that they should choke back their disgust and support Adams and Soudas. All things considered, that’s probably what they should still do.

This notion will strike some as incomprehensible but politics is a team sport and the party leader heads that team. Occasionally voting for something or someone you dislike because the leader wants it comes with the territory. Such discipline is vital in politics. It enables the reliable functioning of our big-tent, brokerage party system. And that system has served Canada well by forging stability in spite of pronounced regional, linguistic and cultural tensions.

It could be argued that voting for or against Adams won’t cause Canada to disintegrate or destroy the party system. On balance, that’s probably correct. But dumping her would almost certainly be seen as a rebuff to Trudeau just as he prepares for the coming election. Even with recent signals that the party brass is genuinely agnostic about the outcome — that they wouldn’t interpret her defeat as a slight (notice that former interim leader Bob Rae has endorsed Adams’ opponent) — the question of how her refusal would play out in the current political climate must be considered.

Media and political observers would rush to replay TV footage of Trudeau welcoming Adams and contrast it with her rejection by the rank and file. Fair or not, her defeat would be used against Trudeau. It’s a headache he hardly needs in the midst of his current labours to pull the Liberals out of third spot.

Many of those eligible to vote in the nomination will conclude, reluctantly, that helping their leader is more important than harming Harper’s deserters. Ironically, Adams and Soudas may become the beneficiary of the sort of loyalty that neither of them proved capable of showing Harper. We are reminded again that politics is a funny old business.

I live in Eglinton-Lawrence and once was a member of the riding association. My phone has rung repeatedly with appeals to renew my standing and come out to vote.

But the commentary I provide to the Citizen and other media keeps me from that kind of partisan involvement these days. Phew. Because if I had to vote, I would struggle mightily. The temptation to put an end to these two would be almost overpowering.

But ultimately, my instinct to support the party leader at this sensitive time — even if the leader’s operation no longer feels it’s mandatory — would probably win out. I would end up voting for Adams.

So, again, thank God I can’t vote.