Juno News - Carney-backed candidate CRIES FOUL after losing Ontario Liberal nomination

00:00:00.000 A prominent Ontario Liberal is blasting the loser of a nomination battle on the weekend,

00:00:11.100 who is refusing to accept the result of the vote. Stephen LaDrew, who will be our guest today,

00:00:16.480 says Nate Erskine-Smith, a Member of Parliament, needs to put up or shut up about his defeat

00:00:21.840 in a contest on the weekend. Erskine-Smith lost his nomination battle in the riding of

00:00:27.680 Scarborough Southwest hinting, however, that the vote may not have been fair. Lots of stories

00:00:33.000 about what's happened inside, but I've got a debrief. It wouldn't be fair for me to jump

00:00:38.880 off the cuff. I really have to talk to the team in detail to get advice from the team as to what

00:00:43.080 they saw happen in there. I've spoken to a few scrutineers already who said they've never seen

00:00:46.560 anything like it, and it's unreal what happened in there. So I need to do a full debrief with

00:00:55.520 the team. Super big. I mean, I wasn't in the room. I was shaking hands. So all they told you was

00:01:01.500 we've never seen anything like that and didn't tell you? They said they've never seen anything

00:01:04.920 like it. There were at one table, it was 50% of the people that had ID issues saying they'd lost

00:01:10.680 driver's license. They just moved in the area. So look, I don't know. It's unfair for me to

00:01:15.160 specifically speculate. I got no idea. I would like to hear from every single person that was

00:01:19.900 that room on our team to understand what took place and what what their feeling is and if there

00:01:25.740 is a legitimate reason to challenge obviously given everything we've seen in the race to date

00:01:31.100 and for some frustrations along the way with this allowing members and and then we see uh

00:01:37.260 scrutineers in that room articulate concerns i i honestly i have to do a full full debrief with

00:01:42.140 them before i decide next steps before i decide if i really consider the outcome fair

00:01:47.900 LeDrew says if Erskine Smith has proof that somebody cheated, he needs to produce it

00:01:53.500 or accept the fact that he lost. It's a huge blow to Smith, who was vying to become the leader of

00:01:59.420 the Ontario Liberal Party. It was also a defeat for Prime Minister Carney, who endorsed Erskine

00:02:05.100 Smith. Let's listen. It hurts in some respects you're going, but I understand it because you're

00:02:10.700 going to be more on the ground. You know, working at the provincial level, working for the folks,

00:02:15.900 I hope, in Scarborough, you know, in health care and education, making lives better,

00:02:21.340 helping to grow that economy, and we'll be right there alongside.

00:02:24.940 Now, the winner, a local businessman by the name of Asunal Afiz, won by just 19 votes,

00:02:31.580 and had this to say when it was over.

00:02:33.420 It's a very high-tense nomination race. I had never seen a nomination race like this,

00:02:37.340 you know what I mean? So, feeling is great, of course, you know what I mean? Because

00:02:40.780 Because the whole community was behind me, Scarborough Southwest, that was the proof

00:02:44.960 on the result today.

00:02:46.420 Erskine Smith wasn't the only one who was questioning the nomination.

00:02:51.300 One reporter posted this.

00:02:53.380 At the Liberal nomination meeting in Scarborough Southwest, candidates are giving speeches

00:02:57.880 to near empty rooms while supporters line up waiting to vote.

00:03:04.300 Candidates are handing out sample ballots, suggesting top two choices.

00:03:10.780 And as you can see, Smith was not considered a top choice in that sample ballot.

00:03:16.180 Our guest today is Stephen LeDrew, former president of the Liberal Party of Canada,

00:03:20.560 joining us from beautiful Buckhorn, Ontario.

00:03:22.560 Welcome, Stephen.

00:03:24.000 Good to be on your show, as always, Mark.

00:03:26.240 Let's listen once again to what MP Nate Erskine Smith had to say

00:03:30.740 right after his defeat in that Liberal nominating meeting on the weekend.

00:03:35.440 Let's listen.

00:03:36.200 I've spoken to a few scrutineers already who said they've never seen anything like it.

00:03:39.040 and it's unreal what happened in there so i i i i need i need to i need to i need to do a full

00:03:45.840 i need to do a full debrief with the team uh i mean i wasn't in the room i was shaking hands and

00:03:52.040 they said they've never seen anything like it there were at one table it was 50 of the people

00:03:59.940 that had id issues uh saying they'd lost driver's license they just moved in the area so look i

00:04:04.840 I don't know. It's unfair for me to specifically speculate. I got no idea.

00:04:08.880 I would like to hear from every single person that was in that room on our team to understand what took place and what their feeling is and if there is a legitimate reason to challenge.

00:04:19.700 Obviously, given everything we've seen in the race to date and some frustrations along the way with disallowing members and then we see scrutineers in that room articulate concerns.

00:04:31.220 i i honestly i have to do a full full debrief with them before i decide next steps before i decide if

00:04:37.220 if i really consider the outcome fair there you go suspicious goings on he's never seen anything

00:04:42.500 like it steven half the people had id issues some just moved to the area what do you make of this

00:04:48.580 well there's two uh two focal points on it it's what the the losing canada say canada said mark

00:04:55.780 and he said that he has strong suspicions of voting irregularities fine he's losing candidates

00:05:05.460 i think it looks like sour grapes if he has evidence he should shut up until he has that

00:05:11.140 evidence and then bring it forward but not just throw ask you know ideas out there and say oh i

00:05:17.380 i've been told by my people that there were irregularities i was also told that his chief

00:05:22.180 scrutineer the person who was there to make sure there were no irregularities had signed off on

00:05:27.220 the process so there's a number of uh issues to be uh resolved however in the meantime uh that

00:05:36.340 candidate does not he's not putting his best foot forward because it just sounds like he's uh you

00:05:40.740 know he lost no one likes to lose uh but unless you have some evidence you just shut up and take

00:05:45.620 the verdict the other aspect i want to bring up to you though mark is this is the provincial

00:05:52.020 liberal party that lost the last election that uh you and i and others know that the officers of the

00:06:02.100 party leadership of the party they couldn't organize a christmas parade in december i mean

00:06:09.460 they really are not built for prime time one writing one writing we dealt with this weekend

00:06:17.460 and they knew that someone running for the nomination wanted to run for leader you'd think

00:06:22.500 that they would have really smart people in there and really good processes to make sure

00:06:28.500 that there were no allegations of voters irregularity or that you know all kinds of

00:06:33.060 people were not were voting who shouldn't have been voting no no see this is not run by the

00:06:37.700 candidates this is run by the liberal party of ontario and the liberal party of ontario

00:06:42.740 I'm pulled by many, many people, as I said, couldn't organize a Christmas parade in December.

00:06:49.940 It just is incompetent. And that shows. My understanding, you would know better than

00:06:56.340 I, is that Erskine Smith is not well-liked in the Liberal Party. Some are suggesting that

00:07:01.880 they manipulated things, that the party itself did not want Erskine Smith in there. Others say

00:07:07.800 that the opposite is true in terms of being competitive with Ford

00:07:12.360 and that maybe Doug Ford, the premier, currently is the real winner here

00:07:16.500 as a result of what took place because they saw Erskine Smith

00:07:20.020 maybe as a major threat.

00:07:22.040 What do you think?

00:07:23.720 Well, I think that Doug Ford is the real winner

00:07:25.500 because it just shows the provincial liberal prize.

00:07:27.500 They can't even organize one.

00:07:30.000 Can you imagine them trying to run an election across Ontario

00:07:33.740 with each riding?

00:07:34.560 They couldn't organize one riding and they had months to do it, Mark.

00:07:38.400 So I don't know whether, I mean, like everybody in politics, Erskine Smith is admired by many, many people.

00:07:46.080 He was a popular and still is a popular liberal MP at the beach.

00:07:52.020 He did some wonderful work in Ottawa.

00:07:54.500 I know people at the beach, they think he is just absolutely terrific.

00:07:58.140 Now, you're going from, and then he was in the cabinet for a short while,

00:08:01.740 and then he spoke out against the prime minister because he was cheesed off he was dropped from the

00:08:05.420 cabinet i don't know about that stuff but you know if you drop from the cabinet i always like to uh

00:08:11.180 i like to uh to quote the late jim peterson who was a federal cabinet minister

00:08:15.980 and i happened to uh to run into him at 24 sussex years ago after he had been dropped from the

00:08:24.460 cabinet by chretchen for no good reason it was just leadership politics and jim was a great friend of

00:08:31.180 paul martin and so those things happened and it was unfair and it was not nice and what did

00:08:39.340 jim peterson say to the prime minister said prime minister it's been a great honor and a pleasure

00:08:45.980 to serve you now that is is a classy move and so from erskine smith you know what he was saying

00:08:54.860 on weekend that's not that's not a very sophisticated move he can recover from it

00:08:59.820 but to go down to provincial politics and start uh you know criticizing the way the party ran it

00:09:08.220 they should have been criticized but he should have kept his mouth shut

00:09:11.900 does this reflect on the prime minister who publicly endorsed erskine smith

00:09:19.340 oh i don't think so at all uh there's always been great divides between the provincial

00:09:24.300 Liberal Party in Ontario and the federal one. The prime minister thought so little of Richmond

00:09:31.340 Smith that he dropped him from the cabinet after about three or four months of being in the cabinet.

00:09:36.060 So we don't have a real big endorsement from the prime minister about this guy,

00:09:43.180 notwithstanding what he said for running a provincial politics. Maybe the prime minister

00:09:47.100 was being smart, very, very smart and saying, gosh, if I can endorse this guy and I can help

00:09:52.780 him get elected then he's out of my caucus so you know my i i've got rid of a pain yes excuse me

00:10:02.300 that's all right um there was this column in the toronto sun by brian lily we shouldn't let

00:10:09.980 underage non-citizens vote in party nominations so to what degree is this a reflection on

00:10:19.100 on who votes, who gets to vote on these, you know, non-Canadians, people who just move into the area.

00:10:26.580 I mean, doesn't that increase the likelihood that the person winning may not necessarily represent the will of the people in the riding?

00:10:35.920 You are being just so understated when you say that, Mark.

00:10:39.660 I mean, you're absolutely right.

00:10:41.260 But it's the party's rules.

00:10:42.480 And recently, when there's been some cuck-ups about party nominations, some well-intentioned but poorly thought-out people will say, oh, we need to have the government make rules for party nominations.

00:10:57.920 Baloney.

00:10:58.680 You don't want a bunch of bureaucrats making rules for party nominations. 1.00

00:11:02.740 Parties should lay out.

00:11:06.180 When I was president of the party, we laid out the rules.

00:11:08.600 Here are the rules.

00:11:09.440 It's clear, and everybody buys into them.

00:11:12.480 And if the rules are broken, you pay the consequences.

00:11:16.060 That's what should have happened on this weekend. 1.00

00:11:17.820 If they want to allow underage people to vote, say so.

00:11:23.140 If there is a rule against allowing underage people to vote,

00:11:26.100 then have the officials there and say, give me your ID. 0.99

00:11:29.740 If you're underage, get the heck out.

00:11:32.420 You know, by means for the parties to decide these things, Mark,

00:11:35.500 and to make the rules and to follow the rule of law

00:11:38.940 and not let a bunch of Ottawa pointy head bureaucrats

00:11:42.020 get in there and screw up the party system 1.00

00:11:44.340 like they screw up virtually everything they all touch.

00:11:47.540 We can have a sovereign fund in Ontario.

00:11:52.600 Well, there's the whole issue around diversity

00:11:55.000 and the push by liberals, the leftist progressives.

00:11:58.660 Diversity is our strength, you know,

00:12:00.300 and so now you have what appears to be

00:12:03.820 a liberal who is the victim of some of that

00:12:07.920 immigration policy that the liberals have pushed just bring in you know millions of people into

00:12:13.900 the country uh give them every chance to stay you know is this a situation where they're kind of the

00:12:23.120 victim of their own policies around immigration and quote-unquote diversity well i would i

00:12:29.440 certainly agree with you but i would put it differently mark i say they're victims of their 0.99

00:12:34.280 own stupidity uh because people across the country i've been scratching their heads for years about 0.99

00:12:40.680 what trudeau and mark miller who's minister of immigration who is still in carney's cabinet uh 1.00

00:12:47.320 is an incompetent uh why they were doing that where they thought they got the mandate from

00:12:52.280 whether it's a post-industrial state where they're trying to destroy the canadian uh society i don't

00:12:57.240 know what their intention was but i know what the result was which is that they certainly have

00:13:01.400 weakened canadian society yes diversity you we you know 30 years ago you came to this country

00:13:09.480 and you want to become a canadian so everybody was going to be part of society and most people

00:13:15.560 did that and we built a stronger society because of it now under the last 12 years of liberal

00:13:21.720 government uh come to this country and be like you were in the other country wherever you came from

00:13:29.240 And so start your tribal wars, fight it out here. 0.97

00:13:32.380 We can burn churches down, you can burn synagogues down. 0.99

00:13:35.540 Just come on in here and just destroy us.

00:13:38.260 So maybe this candidate, this federal candidate who was supporting those policies

00:13:42.400 in the federal government for the last few years has got his come up.

00:13:47.240 Oh, maybe we weren't that smart after all,

00:13:50.520 because most people in the country think or know that they weren't that smart.

00:13:54.240 And now maybe we have the evidence of that, Mark.

00:13:56.340 Is there a possibility, Stephen, that there will be a civil war, a rupture, in the words of Mark Carney, at the heart of the Liberal Party between the old guard that expected Erskine Smith to win and those who are all in on making new Canadians and even non-Canadians representatives of their parties?

00:14:18.700 Well, I don't think that'd be a wise course for anybody to pursue. I think that the fact of the matter is that Erskine Smith did not feel comfortable in the federal Liberal Party, or he did not see an opportunity to reward his ambition.

00:14:38.620 So he clearly was jumping to the provincial party.

00:14:42.240 And he must think that Ford is vulnerable.

00:14:45.840 And maybe Ford is.

00:14:47.240 Certainly not now.

00:14:48.240 Certainly not by the Liberal Party. 1.00

00:14:50.620 And by the NDP party who are saying he's going to be in jail, which is idiocy. 0.98

00:14:56.060 So really, I mean, I just think that everybody should hold their comments. 0.95

00:15:04.240 Everybody in the party, the federal party should say nothing about it.

00:15:07.880 because he was jumping to the provincial party.

00:15:10.520 The provincial party, the president of the provincial party

00:15:13.960 should be sitting out there and saying,

00:15:15.940 yeah, there were mistakes made,

00:15:18.120 and we are going to have a new nomination,

00:15:21.500 or they were not that significant,

00:15:23.500 where everybody's just going to have to put some water in their wine

00:15:26.140 and deal with the results that we got.

00:15:28.580 Or somebody should take somebody behind the closed door, Mark,

00:15:33.060 and say, listen, you know, you're not going to win this thing.

00:15:37.880 to shut up, be quiet, and we will move on.

00:15:42.420 Those things have happened before in politics, Mark,

00:15:44.240 as I'm sure you're aware.

00:15:46.220 But is Erskine Smith done, essentially,

00:15:49.540 in terms of his vying for the leadership

00:15:52.780 of the Ontario Liberal Party?

00:15:54.260 Is that it for him, do you think?

00:15:55.960 It depends on what he does with this.

00:15:57.720 If, as he was saying in the press conference

00:16:00.200 that you were talking about,

00:16:01.440 that you played at the start of this, Mark,

00:16:03.460 if he comes up and says,

00:16:04.960 I have signed affidavits from 50 people that they saw or that they were underage and that they voted.

00:16:14.060 If he comes up with solid, uncomfortable evidence that this writing meeting was jeopardized, was run dishonestly, was run incompetently, then there's another day for him to fight.

00:16:28.940 Because he can go on and say privately to the party, you better do something about this.

00:16:33.560 or two uh he can go public it's not gonna look good if it goes public but three if he does make

00:16:41.820 right i mean why does the liberal party tolerate this

00:16:50.320 why does the liberal party tolerate this i mean we've seen instances where foreign students are

00:16:57.820 voting i mean i did do they not understand that this is undermining the credibility of the party

00:17:07.260 clearly not until you pointed it out mark they didn't do anything about it

00:17:13.900 but that's why i said i mean the the machinery at the provincial level is uh before the last

00:17:20.460 election i would hear stories from people and uh they say that you know these people

00:17:25.980 in the mission the liberal party office just don't know what they're doing i think we saw the

00:17:30.060 evidence of this weekend so you know as to the to the future of irsman smith he i think he has to

00:17:38.300 have to come up with some evidence or just uh you know stuff it in his pocket and walk away

00:17:44.620 and say i'll fight another day but i'm not going to be leader why would you want to be leader of

00:17:49.420 of that party. All right. Stephen LaDrew, host of the three-minute interview. Thank you so much for

00:17:57.260 coming on the show. Appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me. It's always a pleasure to chat with

00:18:01.440 you, Mark. See you later. If you enjoyed this show, consider supporting great independent

00:18:06.340 journalism by becoming a premier member of Juno News. Please go to junonews.com backslash straight

00:18:12.560 up. You can find a link below. It helps us do what we do here. Thank you so much. We'll see you next

00:18:17.440 time.

Juno News - May 12, 2026

Carney-backed candidate CRIES FOUL after losing Ontario Liberal nomination

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