Ex-Tory MP’s lawsuit against Ford’s PCs rejected
Provincial Conservatives well within their authority to appoint their candidate, judge rules
An Ontario Superior Court judge has thrown out a spurned former Conservative MP’s lawsuit against Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.
Justice Edward Belobaba ruled Friday that the provincial Tories were well within their authority to appoint candidate Brian Saunderson in Simcoe-Grey over Stella Ambler.
Ambler, the Mississauga South MP from 2011 to 2015, took the party to court after Ford appointed Saunderson last June.
Now on the hook for legal costs of up to $30,000, she told the Star she would comment later.
Belobaba chided her lawyer, Asher Honickman, for even bringing the case forward before exhausting the PC party’s internal dispute resolution processes. “This is premature. I don’t deny that she has genuine concerns,” the judge said.
“But in terms of a court of law stepping into a private association’s procedures — where there are internal complaint and protest and appeal rights clearly set out in the nomination rules that have not yet been completed — how do I even begin as a Superior Court judge to get involved in this particular dispute?”
The judge pointed out “the likelihood is minimal” that Ambler would ever be a candidate for the Tories, even if he had allowed the case to proceed. That’s because, as PC lawyer Arthur Hamilton’s 23-page legal factum noted, “Ms. Ambler will not be the party’s candidate for Simcoe-Grey, regardless of any outcome of the application.”
“There is no judicial authority permitting a court to compel a party leader to endorse a candidate that she or he does not agree should be a candidate for that leader’s registered party,” it noted.
While Honickman conceded “we are in the realm of private law,” because all registered political parties are essentially clubs that can admit or reject members, he worried about the ramifications of the case.
“If there is a real appointment power then really the (PC) constitution means nothing,” the lawyer said. Ambler had hoped to jump to provincial politics and was one of four candidates vying for the seat, one of the safest Tory ridings in Ontario.
Last June, in the midst of the nomination battle, Ford handpicked Collingwood Mayor Saunderson to be the PC candidate in the Ontario election next June 2. Ambler’s legal team argued that the premier abused his power in a way that was “unlawful and/or inequitable.”
Simcoe-Grey has been represented by MPP Jim Wilson since 1990. A former cabinet minister, he has sat as an Independent since November 2018, when Ford removed him from caucus after a sex scandal involving a male PC staffer. Wilson, who entered treatment for alcohol abuse, is not seeking re-election.
An Ontario judge said ‘the likelihood is minimal’ that Stella Ambler would ever be a candidate for the Tories, even if he had allowed the case to proceed