Conservative campaign operatives are accusing the Liberal Party of running a “racist” campaign in the recent Oxford federal byelection, claiming slogans that highlighted winning Tory candidate Arpan Khanna’s past ties to Brampton, Ont. are an example of dog-whistle politics.
In a letter posted on LinkedIn, Hamish Marshall, a long-time Conservative strategist and pollster who ran the party’s 2019 federal election campaign, said the Oxford race was “the most disgusting, overtly racist campaign I’ve ever seen.”
“I’ve been around politics for almost 30 years and yet the blatant hypocrisy of the Liberal Party of Canada still manages to shock me,” he said, adding that Monday’s closely fought byelection race was also the “nastiest” one he’s ever witnessed.
Khanna, an Indo-Canadian, is a relatively new resident of Woodstock, Ont. who previously ran for the federal Conservatives in Brampton in 2019.
Marshall and others are pointing to signs that dotted the riding in the lead-up to Monday’s vote as evidence of racism.
One sign spotted in the riding bore the slogan, “Dave is from Woodstock not Brampton,” a reference to Liberal candidate David Hilderley’s ties to the region as a former schoolteacher and real estate agent.
Other banners, which were attached to Hilderley’s lawn signs, urged people to “vote local.”
Another slogan used by Hilderley’s team was, “From Oxford, for Oxford.”
In his campaign literature, Khanna touted his education at the University of Western Ontario in neighbouring London to bolster his local credentials.
His tenuous ties to the region prompted claims that Khanna was a “parachute candidate,” an outsider hand-picked by party leaders to run in a safe Conservative seat.
A sign saying ‘Dave is from Woodstock, not Brampton’ stands next to a Liberal election sign during the Oxford federal byelection. Conservative MP-elect Arpan Khanna previously ran for the party in Brampton, Ont. in 2019. (Supplied by Hamish Marshall)
Marshall said Khanna, who won by a smaller margin than the last Conservative candidate in the 2021 federal election, is “the hardest working politician I know” and that drive secured him a victory despite the allegedly racially tinged messages he faced in the riding.
Jenni Byrne, a senior adviser to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, said Marshall’s racism claims were a “precise analysis” of what went on in Oxford.
Sarah Fischer, director of communications for the Conservative Party, said in a statement to CBC News that Marshall’s description of the Liberal strategy as “disgusting” and “racist” is “unfortunately accurate.”
“To say that there were undertones of racism exhibited by the Liberal campaign would be painting the picture with too light of a brushstroke. It was overt and intentional. The signs, comments, ads and literature insinuating that the Conservative candidate was ‘not one of us’ were disgraceful. It brought Liberal campaigning to a new low that would likely shock many Liberal Party supporters,” Fischer said.
“We are very proud of Arpan Khanna for the strong and respectable campaign he ran, despite the horrendous prejudice he had to deal with.”
Liberal candidate David Hilderley’s team used the slogan ‘From Oxford, for Oxford’ in some of their campaign material. (David Hilderley/Facebook)
Brampton, a suburb of Toronto, is home to a large South Asian community. More than 50 per cent of the city’s residents trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent.
Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill, Hilderley, who was in Ottawa after his byelection loss for a Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday, called the racism claims “baloney.”
“We actually ran a very, very good campaign. We had a very strong, super strong team. We had so much support from MPs close by,” Hilderley said.
“It’s pretty good when you can bring up the best results in the last 30 years for the Liberals. I’m thrilled we accomplished so much in Oxford County.”
Liberal candidate David Hilderley calls Tory claims of a racist campaign ‘baloney’
Asked by reporters about his campaign, Hilderley denied the claims and said he ran a ‘very strong’ campaign.
The Liberals, meanwhile, claim Poilievre’s hard-right brand of politics is what alienated some traditional Conservative voters and nearly tipped the long-time Tory seat into the Liberal win column.
“Indeed, that claim is baloney,” Azam Ishmael, national director of the Liberal Party of Canada, told CBC News when asked about Conservative racism claims.
“Pierre Poilievre parachuted his long-time friend into a riding that he thought would easily secure him a job in his caucus — a move that saw former CPC MP Dave MacKenzie endorse our Liberal candidate in this byelection.
“Clearly, this is a desperate attempt by Conservatives to distract from the fact that Canadians are rejecting Pierre Poilievre’s reckless policies that would take Canada backward.”
Conservative Arpan Khanna, left, Liberal David Hilderley, centre, and New Democrat Cody Groat, right, ran in the southern Ontario riding of Oxford in a federal byelection. (arpankhanna.ca, davidhilderley.liberal.ca, oxfordndp.ca)
Khanna was running in a riding that is among the least racially diverse in the province — a largely rural area with smaller population centres like Woodstock and Tillsonburg.
According to the 2021 census, 90 per cent of the Oxford riding’s residents are white English speakers. The second most commonly spoken language in Oxford is Dutch.
Since the last census, the riding has seen an influx of racially diverse newcomers, some of whom have settled in Woodstock, a manufacturing hub that’s home to a number of automotive supply companies.
Khanna won 43 per cent of the vote compared to 36.2 per cent for Hilderley — a relatively tight race in a riding that has had a conservative-leaning MP for most of the past 70 years.
A Khanna campaign volunteer, who spoke to CBC News on the condition that they not be named, said the Liberal campaign was “just gross.”
“I’m not adverse to some hard campaigning but it was unseemly. The only point of their campaign was, ‘Arpan is not from here,'” the volunteer said.
“If it had been a white candidate from London, you wouldn’t have seen this stuff. All of this talk about, ‘We don’t want Brampton politics in Oxford,’ it was barely a dog-whistle.”
Conservative candidate Arpan Khanna at his victory party in the southwestern Ontario riding of Oxford. (Isha Bhargava/CBC News)
The Conservative Party’s nomination race for the seat was a contested one — and talk of Khanna’s Brampton ties started there first.
Outgoing MP Dave MacKenzie endorsed his daughter, local councillor Deb Tait, to succeed him as the Conservative candidate in the race.
Tait has alleged dirty tricks by party headquarters secured the nomination for Khanna, who served as Poilievre’s Ontario campaign co-chair. The party denies Tait’s claim.
MacKenzie and Tait ended up endorsing Hilderley.
“We’ve been here for over 50 years and all that time I’ve known [Hilderley] he’s been a good, strong, honest man with principles,” MacKenzie told CBC News at the Liberal byelection night watch party.
“He’s been very active in the community. I’m just one that believes it’s about the community. I don’t think you can drop in someone from 100 kilometres away and have the community’s interest at heart — no matter what they tell you.”
Catherine Agar and Brian Kaufman, the Conservative Party’s Oxford riding association president and vice-president respectively, resigned after Khanna’s nomination.
In a letter announcing her resignation, obtained by the London Free-Press, Agar said the nomination was “full of problems” and the party’s rules were “repeatedly ignored.”
“It is my personal opinion that the Oxford nomination was hijacked by people from Ottawa and Brampton who crafted a win for Mr. Khanna with a small sample of the Oxford Conservative membership,” she said.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
