Eve Adams’ nomination loss puts end to harmful blunder by Justin Trudeau
STEPHEN MAHER
07.26.2015
Back in February, when the Liberals were a dozen points ahead of the NDP in the polls, Justin Trudeau held a news conference in Ottawa to announce a surprise star candidate: Conservative MP Eve Adams!
Adams said she could no longer put up with the mean-spirited, divisive leadership of Stephen Harper, and praised Trudeau and his “kind, generous and strong leadership.”
Trudeau returned the favour, in what Andrew Coyne accurately described as a “crawlingly demeaning performance,” praising Adams’ “passion and commitment to her constituents,” behaving as if he had outfoxed his opponents.
But he had actually taken a huge problem off the hands of the Conservatives. Conservative campaign manager Jenni Byrne even sent a bouquet of flowers to Trudeau advisor Gerry Butts.
Adams and her spouse, former Harper aide Dimitri Soudas, had been caught cheating twice in an effort to get her a Conservative nomination. When party brass finally threw up their hands and disqualified her, suddenly she was next to Trudeau, saying she could no longer support the nasty Conservatives.
The stated reasons were transparently bogus, requiring the kind of suspension of disbelief that only dedicated partisans can muster.
Even Liberals could drop the pretence as of Sunday evening, when Liberals in Eglinton-Lawrence voted for Marco Mendicino over Adams in a hard fought nomination battle.
Mendicino is Italian, like many of the voters in the Toronto riding. He’s a former mob-fighting prosecutor who helped put the Toronto 18 behind bars; a strong candidate to challenge the incumbent, Finance Minister Joe Oliver.
Mendicino’s people say that when they door-knocked the voters Adams signed up — mostly new Canadians — many of them didn’t know they had joined the party and they certainly hadn’t paid to do so. This is the same tactic that got Adams disqualified by the Tories.
At the school where the battle was held on Sunday, Adams and Soudas were hustling all afternoon, trying to get their instant Liberals — mostly Somalis and south Asians — to the polling place, while Mendocino’s people — mostly Italian — watched apprehensively. They were ahead all day, but she had signed up more people. If they all showed up, Mendocino would have lost. They didn’t show.
As supporters waited for results to be announced, Adams’ supporters chanted: “We need more women in Parliament.” A Mendicino supporter shouted: “But we don’t need more Tories.”
Trudeau lucked out when Mendicino won, since he stands a better chance against Oliver.
But what was he thinking back in February? What possessed him to recruit Adams?
The darkest theory is that he wanted intel from Soudas, who might know all kinds of interesting things
Trudeau’s people say that’s nonsense. It was a simple political calculation. Trudeau wanted a name, the kind of candidate who makes it easier to bring down a cabinet minister.
The party encouraged her to run in Milton but she wanted Eglinton-Lawrence, where Mendicino beat her. End of story.
Even if this is the whole story, it’s not impressive that Trudeau would be prepared to take someone who cheated too much for the party that had Dean Del Mastro’s back right up until the bailiffs put him in chains.
And was Trudeau too full of himself to see that nobody would be convinced by her words of praise?
He is now trailing in the polls, and his party is sharpening knives and complaining about him and his team, while the other parties are out looking for votes.
