Tainted vote allegations plague Ontario PC nominations

Is there a cheating problem among candidates vying for nomination in the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario?

Yorkregion.com
June 1, 2017
By Kim Zarzour

Richmond Hill is the latest riding where PC party members are crying foul over how their party is handling the process for nominating candidates.

In ridings across the province, including King-Vaughan, Mississauga-Erin-Mills, Burlington and Carleton, there are accusations of ballot-stuffing, falsified membership forms, fake and paid-for memberships and other “irregularities”.

Three other ridings - Aurora-Newmarket, Ottawa-Nepean and Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas - have filed notices of appeal for alleged rule-breaking.

Now the results in Richmond Hill are being disputed.
PC party members in Richmond Hill have raised concerns about cheating, and phone calls to people on a local membership list reveal many residents appear to have been contacted by candidate Lara Coombs and registered as members without their knowledge, payment or permission.

Coombs would not comment on the allegations. She said she has appealed the results herself, based on inaccessibility of the voting venue - TMS School - to the disabled, along with other undisclosed issues.

“I’d rather not go into detail. It’s in the hands of the party,” she said.

Rick Dykstra, Ontario PC Party president, wouldn’t comment on the appeals, but said, “It is against party rules to sign up anyone against their will.”

When Patrick Brown ran for the PC leadership two years ago, he promised a transparent nomination process.

But allegations about rigged elections and charges of systemic breaking of the rules have led some to question the transparency.
With hopes rising that the party may have a chance at defeating the provincial Liberals, observers say the race for nominations has become a “feeding frenzy”.

In Richmond Hill, four candidates - Coombs, Ted Leider, Scott Sun and Daisy Wai - ran for the nomination and, in a crowded vote held Mother’s Day, results came down to a tie between Wai and Coombs.

That tie was broken by riding president Al Itwar, who cast his vote for Wai.

Now, as in other ridings across the province, there are allegations of wrongdoing.

Only PC party members can vote for nominees - and that requires payment of a $10 annual fee along with the filling out of an application form with signature certifying the membership fee was paid using their own funds or those of an immediate family member.

Coombs, a resident of Markham, quickly gathered a huge number of new Richmond Hill members - about 1,200 names.

Joe DiPaola, her campaign assistant (and husband of Charity McGrath, winner of another disputed race in Aurora-Newmarket), called Coombs “truly the best canvasser in the PC Party”.

But some disagree.

“It’s not canvassing, it’s deceiving,” said Wai, “A lot of people are really angry. People showed up [at the nomination voting site] completely bewildered. They didn’t know why they were there. They were just told they needed to come and vote for a particular person.”

Many were vulnerable people, she said, living in apartments, newcomers to the country and did not know their names were being added to a membership list.

“They were pushed into it, feeling threatened because they might lose their status as Canadians. It’s a shame when we are in Canada that this could happen…. Something bad in our community is going on and it’s taking away opportunities for people who have a real passion for their community.”

Richmond Hill Coun. Tom Muench, who attended the vote in support of another candidate, reported similar concerns.

“We have lots of questions about who signed their papers for them, where they live, how membership numbers could have grown so drastically.”

Yorkregion.com contacted 31 names on a list of local PC party members. All but one said they were unaware they were on the list, did not want to belong to the party, did not pay $10 and did not fill out the membership application or sign it.

Most were elderly or spoke English as a second language and recalled that Coombs, or someone representing her, knocked on their doors.

Vince Walter remembered Coombs as a “pleasant lady” who asked him to come to the vote.

He was disturbed to receive a phone call later from someone informing him he was now a voting member of the Richmond Hill riding.

“But I did not pay any money or sign anything and I don’t know who did,” said the widower, who is in his 80s.

“I’m not going to lay charges - I’m too old for that stuff - but, in my opinion, that’s fraudulent.”

Avelino DeSousa was also surprised to find her name on the membership list.

“No one said anything about membership and no one asked for any money. I just assumed anyone from the public could vote and I thought it was my civic duty, so I did.”

Anna Drobakha said she is a friend of Coombs and does not want the Liberals to be re-elected, so she volunteered as a scrutineer on voting day and voted for Coombs, although she never paid or signed on as a member.

“Nobody was asked for money,” she said.

Allegations of similar tactics in Aurora-Newmarket by McGrath have led to protests from the local riding association and appeals for the party executive to order a professional audit.

The riding president, Al Itwar, could not be reached for comment.

Coombs said in an interview she could not comment on whether the names on the membership list were paid for. She said she has filed an appeal with the party over accessibility and other issues.

“I’d rather not go into detail. It’s in the hands of the party.”

DiPaola said some names on the membership list may have been entered in error.

“To my knowledge, every member she got had paid $10 and signed their form. Lara was pretty particular about that,” he said. “She did have some partially filled out forms that were merely leads that she was going to go back to, to see if they would pay, and they may have been inadvertently added.”

Costas Menegakis, former Conservative MP for Richmond Hill, said he has heard complaints about residents being signed up for membership without their knowledge in Richmond Hill and other ridings.

He attributes it to “over-zealousness” by some who foresee a possible defeat of the Liberal government in next year’s provincial election.

“Ted [Leider] and Daisy [Wai] both contributed a lot over the years and both would have been worthy representatives,” he said.

Frank Klees, former Newmarket PC MPP, said he too has heard concerns about irregularities.

“Appeals have been registered in some ridings and we can’t pre-judge. We have to wait and see what the investigations turn up.”

Brown called in private-sector auditors PwC earlier this month to oversee the nomination process going forward and the firm was present to validate the count in Richmond Hill.

But Les Kobli, former regional vice-president of the Ontario PC Party, said auditors are there to ensure the ballot count is accurate, “nothing to do with checking whether they are actually a member or not, and whether they have paid for membership themselves.”