Disqualified PC candidate considers independent run in 2018

A Progressive Conservative member who was disqualified from seeking his party's nomination says he'll now look at running as an independent candidate in next year's election.

Chris Duffie was hoping that Justice Judy Clendening would order the PC party to put him on the ballot for the nomination in Carleton-York.

But Clendening ruled that the way the party notified party members of the May 19 convention, though "restrictive" in timing, did not break any rules.

Evidence filed in court "does not allow me to conclude" that the party was in the wrong, she said, dismissing Duffie's motion.

That means the party can reschedule the convention, which Clendening had ordered suspended, with sitting PC MLA Carl Urquhart as the only candidate.

Considering independent run

​The party's lawyer, Kelly Lamrock, argued in court that Duffie had filed his legal action without exhausting the party's own appeal mechanisms, including asking Blaine Higgs,the party's leader, to disqualify Urquhart to get the riding association to start over.

Duffie told reporters after the hearing that he will "reflect" on whether to run in Carleton-York anyway.

"This may just be the beginning of looking at independent — of voting for a candidate, versus a party," he said.

But he also said he would ask Higgs to intervene.

Duffie said he didn't want to make a snap decision based on his emotions, and though it's "highly improbable" Higgs will step in, he planned to call the Tory leader by the end of the day.

"He may or may not give me a call back," Duffie said. "He hasn't called me back yet."

There was no immediate comment Monday afternoon from Higgs on whether he'd consider the move.

Higgs would have already signed his approval of Urquhart as a candidate for the nomination.

Missed deadline

Duffie had alleged that the party didn't follow its rules requiring riding associations to make "every effort" to notify all members of the May 19 convention.

That notice also set the clock ticking on a May 5 deadline for candidates wanting to run for the nomination to file their paperwork. Duffie said he missed that deadline because the party didn't send out proper notifications.

The convention was listed on the PC website but Duffie's lawyer, Kevin Toner, argued it was "buried" and required several clicks to find.

That got a skeptical response from the judge.

"If you were going to run, wouldn't you be reading that website backwards, forward, upside down, morning, noon & night?" she asked.

Lamrock, the party lawyer, cited several court precedents in which judges have been reluctant to interfere in internal disputes of political parties and other organizations with their own rules and mechanisms.

In fact, he said, if the party had let Duffie file his paperwork late, it would have been breaking rules approved by a vote of the membership.

"That is really the heart of it," Lamrock said.

The ruling means the PC convention can go ahead and Duffie remains disqualified.

The party hasn't set a new date for the event yet.