1 week Ago By Telegraph-Journal
Saint John-Kennebecasis Conservative candidate Melissa Young says she doesn’t know why her opponent is fixated on her party’s decision to handpick her to run against him in the riding. Liberal opponent Wayne Long has publicly criticized the federal Conservatives’ decision to appoint Young instead of holding a nomination convention, calling it “undemocratic” and a “slap in the face” to two other local candidates, lawyer Lisa Keenan and military veteran James Robertson. A fourth candidate – mill worker Jamie Vienneau – was also in the running for the local Conservative nomination before Young was officially selected last month.
“We don’t care how they pick their candidates and it’s none of their business how our candidates are picked,” said Young, a former CEO of Skilled Trades Ontario, in an interview Friday. “I don’t know what (Wayne’s) so concerned about. He should be concerned about winning his riding; I think that’s the most important piece.
“If this is the only tool he has to win, I’d say he’s grasping.” Long told Brunswick News he doesn’t support political parties circumventing nomination conventions to handpick candidates despite his own party doing so in another riding. However, Long claims there’s a difference between the appointment of Young in Saint John-Kennebecasis and the appointment of Liberal candidate David Myles in the riding of Fredericton-Oromocto.
While Conservatives had a year to choose a candidate in the redrawn Saint John riding, Long says the Liberal candidates “dropped into the pot within two weeks” in the riding of Fredericton-Oromocto and a decision had to be made. “Do I agree with what they did in Fredericton? No, but they had two weeks,” the three-term MP said in an interview Thursday. “Here it was well known.
.. last June, July, that Melissa Young was going to be the candidate.
I heard it in Ottawa.” Last August, Rothesay ophthalmologist Jeff Steeves suspended his campaign for the Conservative nomination in Saint John-Kennebecasis, claiming that a “parachute” candidate from Ontario had already been handpicked by national party brass to run in the riding. It wasn’t until late last month that the Conservatives formally appointed Young, who has told media she’s lived in New Brunswick her entire life but has commuted to Ontario for work for the last few years.
In early March, Leslie Keirstead, president of the Saint John-Kennebecasis Conservative riding association, abruptly quit her post , citing a “lack of transparency” behind the selection of the local candidate. Long told Brunswick News he’s spoken with longtime local Conservatives who plan to vote differently this time around in part because they “absolutely were against an appointed candidate.” When asked if she would have preferred a nomination convention given the controversy she’s now facing over her selection, Young said, “Listen, I’m a big girl.
I have worked in some pretty heavy-duty jobs in my life. I worked in the trades when there were no other women in the trades. I had to fight my whole life to get where I am and be successful.
“I don’t make those decisions,” she continued. “The party makes those decisions, and we’re not even included in them. We’re told after the fact.
” Both Long and Young agree that all political parties routinely circumvent nomination conventions and appoint candidates. Last month, the federal Liberals selected Myles – a Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter – to run in Fredericton-Oromocto, ending a three-candidate race for the nomination. Myles had the public support of family friend, Premier Susan Holt.
Other candidates in the race included Fredericton business owner Tyler Randall, who is married to Fredericton North MLA Luke Randall, a cabinet minister in the Holt government; and Ryan Sullivan, associate vice-president of enrolment at St. Thomas University. At the time, Sullivan told Brunswick News that party brass was left to make a decision given the short runway following Fredericton Liberal MP Jenica Atwin’s decision not to reoffer.
Atwin publicly announced her decision at the end of January. Both Sullivan and Tyler Randall have publicly thrown their support behind Myles. In a social media post last month, Randall thanked his own supporters for their time “over the past two months” to “organize, plan, create designs and outline strategies with voters.
” “Now, we have a riding to win,” he wrote. “It’s time to get to work.” Brunswick News left messages for Sullivan and Randall to clarify how long each of them had been actively seeking the nomination in the riding, but the newspaper did not receive responses as of press time.
Long maintains that the Conservatives’ decision to appoint in Saint John-Kennebecasis is different from the Liberals’ decision to do so in Fredericton-Oromocto. “These guys had a year to plan a nomination contest here,” Long said. “It’s night and day.
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