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Liberals angry at process, not Thibeault: association prez

Liberals are upset with the way in which Glenn Thibeault was named the candidate for the upcoming Sudbury byelection, but not necessarily with Thibeault himself, says the president of the local riding association.
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Sudbury's political scene was in an uproar this week when it emerged that former NDP MP Glenn Thibeault, seen at a 2013 press conference with Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes, was leaving the party to run for the provincial Liberals in the upcoming byelection. The move has the local riding association reassessing its future. File photo.
Liberals are upset with the way in which Glenn Thibeault was named the candidate for the upcoming Sudbury byelection, but not necessarily with Thibeault himself, says the president of the local riding association.

Bill Nurmi, who has held the post for 20 years, says he and the rest of the executive are taking time to re-evaluate their future with the party in light of recent events.

“It's not the person, it's the process,” he said Wednesday. “I have a lot of respect for Glenn Thibeault, but I have no respect for the way they have gone behind the scenes to make the decision, bypassing all of the people in Sudbury who should have made the decision themselves.”

In recent days, it has emerged that Premier Kathleen Wynne called well-known Liberal fundraiser Gerry Lougheed Jr. to say Thibeault was going to be the candidate in the upcoming byelection to replace NDP MPP Joe Cimino, who resigned last month. Lougheed then met Dec. 11 with Andrew Olivier, who ran for the party in June and came close to winning the seat, losing by less than 1,000 votes.

Lougheed asked Olivier to quietly drop his bid for the byelection nomination and back Thibeault. Instead, Olivier held a news conference Monday to blast the backroom deal and vowed not to run for the party again as long as this sort of deal-making was taking place.

A day later, Thibeault announced he was resigning from the federal NDP caucus to run for the Liberals in Sudbury. While his former NDP colleagues denounced the move, Nurmi says he would have had no problem accepting Thibeault if he had run in an open process against Olivier and any other candidates.

“We made a recommendation to the party that they put a nomination process in place that was democratic and open,” he said. “(Instead), they tried to keep us in the dark for as long as possible, and then pull this out of a hat.”

After trying to engineer a similar appointment in the spring, he said the party brass eventually “capitulated” and agreed to an open nomination, and they ended up with an excellent candidate in Olivier.

“So we felt when Cimino decided to pull the plug, it would have been a very good idea to open up the process again – even if there were star candidates they wanted to put into the race,” Nurmi said. “What they should have done is have them come to the floor of the nomination process. If they were that good, then they could have won on their own merits.”

He's also upset that instead of coming to the people elected to represent local Liberals, Wynne reached out to Lougheed, someone with no official role in the local party.

“At least then we would have a heads up about how this was going to proceed,” Nurmi said. “But when you go to people who are non-elected, who are power brokers, I don't think that sends a very good message to anybody.”

In an interview Tuesday, Lougheed said the fact he's such a big supporter of Wynne, and a good friend of Thibeault, likely played a big role in the premier calling him instead of the executive.

“And I can understand the premier wanting someone with that knowledge, expertise and experience in her caucus,” Lougheed said. “I'm a strong supporter of Kathleen Wynne, and I'm a strong supporter of Glenn.”

He said he played no role in convincing Thibeault to become a Liberal, but described his decision as “likely the most historic political announcement that has ever been made in our community.”

At this point, Nurmi said the executive has to decide whether to accept Thibeault, who has put his political career at risk by facing the electors so soon after crossing the floor. He has spoken to him since the news broke, a conversation he described as “very cordial.”

“I wanted Glenn to know I wasn't personally upset at him,” Nurmi said. “I respect Glenn for the fact that he did put his chips on the table. Crossing the floor is very simple. But packing up your bags (and leaving) federal politics, leaving your party for Ontario politics without being sure of an actual victory, you have to have a lot of guts to do that.”

Nurmi said the executive will meet in the coming days to decide whether to get behind Thibeault or quit. Many “dyed-in-the-wool” Liberals are livid with the entire sequence of events and are ready to walk, he said. It will be up to Thibeault to win them over.

“Again, they are upset with the process, not at the person,” he said. “I'm not sure if that will change in the next month or two – whether they will accept him (as) part of the fold. Maybe they'll walk into the ballot booth and decide that's the vote they'll want to cast.”

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Darren MacDonald

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