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    • Tom Mulcair: Stephen Harper clearly has a preferred candidate in the Conservative race

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    Conservative skullduggery in booting out Patrick Brown as a candidate reflects very badly on a Party prone to lecturing others about probity, ethics and integrity.

    Based on the single, untested word of a longtime party operative, Brown was given the heave-ho. Problem is, he landed on Jean Charest, whose chances of winning will go from slim to none if the Conservatives get away with it.

    The people who made and profited from that decision were very much aware that what they were doing would effectively decide the outcome of the race. Pierre Poili猫vre was being handed a victory not by Conservative members but by Party functionaries.

    When you look at their connections to the Harper era, this whole manoeuvre appears even more troubling. The man overseeing the decision (and announcing it near midnight!) was Stephen Harper鈥檚 former Chief of Staff. Meanwhile, Harper鈥檚 former campaign manager is the senior adviser for Pierre Poilievre, the candidate who benefits most from the elimination of his only serious rivals.

    鈥楬ARPER CLEARLY HAS A PREFERRED CANDIDATE鈥

    Party insiders with whom I鈥檝e spoken are categorical: although he鈥檚 discreet about it, Harper clearly has a preferred candidate, Poilievre.

    Harper has never tried to hide his dislike for Charest personally and politically. In the race that was ultimately won by Erin O鈥橳oole, Charest had given serious thought to throwing his hat in the ring. He was so far along that path that he鈥檇 actually recorded political advertisements that became public.

    In the end, there was the small matter of Charest still being under investigation by Quebec鈥檚 anti-corruption police that made running impossible for him. It did leak out, however, that Charest had tried to do the right thing and at least inform Harper of his designs. According to reports, it didn鈥檛 go well.

    Political parties play an essential role in our system of government. Unlike the Americans, we don鈥檛 have a direct election for Prime Minister.

    That job goes to the leader of the party with the most seats. That鈥檚 why leadership races are tightly controlled by Elections Canada. It鈥檚 also why the courts will move in and review sketchy decisions: political parties are not private associations. They are quasi-public. They give tax breaks to their donors. The public and our judicial system have a deep interest in keeping them on the straight and narrow.

    鈥楯UDGES CAN鈥橳 ALWAYS LOOK BEHIND THE PARTY CURTAINS鈥

    A few years back, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an important ruling in a case that arose during the NDP race that was being held to replace me as leader. Mr. Justice Nordheimer stated that the decisions that political parties make in leadership races are subject to judicial review. The Party cannot simply ordain, by internal rules, that judges can鈥檛 look behind the party curtains.

    There have been other cases since that have gone the other way. Notably, a leadership hopeful in a previous Conservative race, Brad Trost, lost his bid for review when the courts ruled that his relationship with the campaign organizing committee was contractual in nature. A Supreme Court decision dealing with a disciplinary decision by Jehovah鈥檚 Witnesses has also ruled that judicial review was restricted to actions of the State. Those cases could affect Brown鈥檚 chances here.

    At the same time, Brown鈥檚 case is quite distinct from that of Trost and the religious organization. Here we are at the heart of our democratic institutions. The Trost case dealt with the leak of internal documents and the distinction with a religious organization is obvious. Brown鈥檚 case is about whether or not political parties can be judges in their own cases and whether leadership candidates have a right to be heard before being tossed, two fundamental aspects of natural Justice.

    The State is present every step of the way in leadership contests, through the supervision and oversight of Elections Canada. Unlike Trost鈥檚 case, which was purely internal to the Party, Brow艅鈥檚 involves issues that are indeed the subject of State decision-making and Brown was turfed before Elections Canada made any kind of ruling in the matter. If Mr. Brown does get his day in court, the result will be of interest to all Canadians.

    It鈥檚 worth quoting Justice Nordheimer:

    鈥淚n this particular situation, the respondent (NDP) has embarked on a process to select their leader. That leader will be the person who will be put forward, by the respondent, to the citizens of this country as their candidate for the office of Prime Minister. Consequently, the decision of the respondent in selecting their leader carries with it some considerable importance for the voting public鈥onsequently the decisions of political parties do have a very serious and exceptional effect on the interests of every Canadian citizen. The voting public, therefore, has a very direct and significant interest in ensuring that the activities of political parties are carried out in a proper, open, and transparent manner.鈥

    Transparent! Someone should explain the concept to the Conservative committee overseeing the leadership race. Their seriously divided vote, on the flimsiest of evidence, has never been explained plausibly.

    That obligation for transparency is also worth bearing in mind when analyzing what we know so far about the decision to throw Brown out of the leadership race.

    The Conservatives plead that they tried to 鈥渂ring him into compliance鈥 with the rules of Elections Canada. If a party discovers an illegality in a process under the jurisdiction of Elections Canada, their job is to see that it鈥檚 investigated, not to 鈥渂ring it into compliance,鈥 whatever that鈥檚 supposed to mean. If federal law has really been broken it should be prosecuted, not swept under the rug.

    CHAREST鈥橲 鈥楶ATH TO VICTORY鈥

    That leads inexorably to a question as to whether or not any law was actually broken. As one veteran political organizer said to me: 鈥淗iring companies as vendors and having vendors pay staff is not illegal as long as the vendor is then paid by the campaign. It鈥檚 cash management.鈥

    So why was Patrick Brown handed a capital sentence, without the right to be heard, by people with deep ties to Harper?

    The answer can perhaps be found in a document that the Charest campaign circulated in the days prior to the Brown debacle.

    That document was sent on July 4 and was entitled 鈥淢embership Update for Charest Supporters.鈥

    It contains an optimistic but not entirely implausible analysis of a Charest 鈥減ath to victory.鈥

    Here鈥檚 some of what it says:

    鈥450,000 Conservative member supporters are in less than 100 ridings making that vote extremely concentrated.

    Of those, 20 ridings have a total of 100,000 members. This only equals 2,000 points.

    In Quebec, the Party has sold 56K memberships. We are very confident we hold at least 80 per cent of the points distributed across all 78 ridings.

    The interim list confirms, this is a horse race. We鈥檝e said all along this is about points. The winning number is 16,901 and our data confirms Jean Charest is well positioned to achieve that鈥ean Charest has a path to victory.鈥

    WAS CHAREST THE REAL TARGET?

    That was the real target of these shenanigans, not Patrick Brown but Jean Charest. As has always been their habit, the Harperites knew what they wanted - a Poilievre win - and they were going to get it, by hook or by crook.

    Charest still has a 鈥減ath to victory鈥? Destroy it鈥

    Never explicitly stated, Charest鈥檚 only hope has always been to become the second choice of Patrick Brown鈥檚 voters. Those, his team hoped, could capture enough points in the Conservatives鈥 complex ranked ballot/100 point per riding system.

    If Brown is no longer a candidate, it鈥檚 a pretty safe bet that many if not most of his supporters will simply not vote. Why bother? Charest鈥檚 hopes for second-place votes go down the tubes along with his 鈥減ath to victory.鈥

    The Harperites get a TKO against Charest, without ever publicly laying a glove on him.

    They also get their wish: an ideologically pure Conservative Party that鈥檚 been kept free of the unholy influence of 鈥淧rogressive鈥 Conservatives.

    Against that backdrop, Brown appears to have hired a legal A-team that should be giving fits to the Conservative apparatchiks who pulled off this crude stunt.

    If indeed it does come to pass that Marie Henein gets to cross-examine the star witness of the Conservative Party, I鈥檓 going to try and get a front row seat. It鈥檒l be the best show since Johnnie Cochran.

    Tom Mulcair was the leader of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada between 2012 and 2017.

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