OTTAWA — A former British Columbia provincial cabinet minister whose candidacy the federal Conservatives rejected is now threatening the party’s chances of recapturing a historically safe seat.
“What ultimately tipped the scales for me was when lifelong Conservatives said to me ‘we have seen what has happened here, it is unfair’,” said Mike de Jong, who is running as an Independent in Abbotsford—South Langley.
It comes as others who campaigned in the hopes of becoming a Conservative candidate are speaking out about the party’s handling of the nomination process in certain ridings, raising concerns about its behind-the-scenes operations, as it spent months publicly pushing for a federal election.
“I felt I was betrayed. Totally betrayed,” said Keshav Mandadi, who tried to become a candidate in Mississauga and now no longer supports the party.
Successive public opinion polls suggest the Conservatives are tied or trailing the Liberals in pubic support during the federal election campaign, which concludes on April 28.
Some in the party also question
whether internal decisions are to blame
for the reversal of fortune of the Tories, who led in polls by wide margins for over a year until Liberal Leader Mark Carney replaced unpopular prime minister Justin Trudeau in the middle of a trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump.
For de Jong, his journey to registering as an Independent began when Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was running to become party leader, back in 2022.
Recognized as one of the longest-serving representatives in the B.C. legislature, de Jong was also the province’s finance minister when the former B.C. Liberals were in power, delivering five balanced budgets.
During the federal party leadership race, which Poilievre won in a landslide, de Jong says he was impressed by the new leader’s message of fiscal responsibility.
“That led to a request from (Poilievre) and his folks for an endorsement from me,” he told National Post. “And I did.”
What followed was a suggestion he should consider running federally, de Jong said. That opportunity opened up once Ed Fast, the long-serving MP for Abbotsford announced in March 2024 he would be retiring.
After deciding to seek the party’s nomination, which candidates must first secure in order to run under a party’s banner, de Jong says he campaigned for a year, recruiting more than 2,000 members to join the Conservatives.
Last month, just days before the nomination vote was scheduled, he says he was informed by party headquarters that his application had been denied. An attempt to appeal the decision was also unsuccessful, while Sukhman Gill, a 25-year-old whose family runs a blueberry farm and who is new to politics, won the nomination.
“That’s what I think people are reacting negatively to out here,” de Jong said.
One of those is Fast himself, who is throwing his support behind de Jong after he says the party disregarded his request that the contest to replace him be run fairly.
In a scathing open letter, Fast wrote that “party insiders” disqualified “the most qualified candidate,” saying “democracy lost out.”
“In times like these, we desperately need a tested and proven leader,” said Fast — citing the trade war with the U.S. — “not an inexperienced, unqualified Johnnie-come-lately.”
Polling aggregator
338Canada suggests the race
for Fast’s former Abbotsford seat to be toss up between the Liberals and Conservatives, meaning de Jong’s campaign as the second “unofficial” Conservative on the ballot could peel off some of the party’s support in a tight race when every vote could count.
Conservative campaign spokesman Sam Lilly said the party would not comment on reasons why certain people did not become candidates.
“We are proud of our slate of Canada First Conservative (candidates) who are ready to bring home Canada’s promise,” he said in a statement.
As an Independent, de Jong still believes a Conservative government is what the country needs and is committing to voters he would support one as their local representative, should he win the seat.
Across the country in Toronto, Yvonne Robertson says she has heard from dozens of upset Conservatives who bought party memberships and were waiting for a nomination vote to happen in Don Valley West, a riding she represented for the party in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, losing to Liberals both times.
Hoping to do run again, Robertson, who saw her vote grow from the first time she ran, says she informed the party back in 2023 that “we were ready,” having amassed 150 volunteer teams and some 4,000 lawn signs.
After months of silence, during which time she continued hosting events, fundraising and selling memberships, Robertson says she learned in a generic email the party sent to members as the election got underway that Rob Pierce, another candidate who had been eyeing the nomination, had been appointed by the party.
“I thought that this was poor management,” she said.
“It comes down to leadership. This is not the actions of people who are ready to go, when they drop in candidates, it doesn’t matter which riding you’re in … it’s not a good sign. This is an operational choice that they made, I think, awhile ago.”
Pierce recently told National Post he was only named the day before the election was called, saying
“the party decided to try to do something different.”
Robertson says Pierce has called her to ask for help. “There’s a backlash coming now,” she said.
As an owner of different businesses, including a local cookie shop, Robertson, who considers herself an optimist, says she will be fine without the nomination, and is cheering on Poilievre, whom she called a “natural leader” and “team player.”
Still, she questions why the party waited months and months before settling the nomination question and plans to raise the matter once the election concludes.
“You have to debrief after something like this,” she said.
While Robertson does not want people to give up, Keshav Mandadi says he has, after trying to become a candidate in Mississauga East—Cooksville.
In early March, Nita Kang, a real estate agent, announced she was the Conservatives’ nominated candidate, much to Mandadi’s surprise, even as he heard rumblings that could be the case.
In the months leading up to that, Mandadi says he was reassured by different party officials that a nomination contest would happen and kept campaigning, after taking out a Conservative membership in 2023.
Ultimately, he says he was informed that his application was incomplete, an explanation he rejects.
“I lost faith in the people who operated this party,” he said.
National Post
staylor@postmedia.com
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