By Louise Hayes
The Conservative race for Ottawa Centre got off to a false start as David Longbottom dropped out the day after he was nominated.
“There was just a couple of things around the nominations procedures I wasn’t comfortable with,” says Longbottom, a local high-tech consultant.
Longbottom, who intends to remain active in the riding association, joined the party last month and decided to run very late in the game. He defeated author Raymond Samuels for the position at the Oct. 22 nomination meeting. A third candidate, Kevin Lister, stepped down at the nomination meeting and supported Longbottom in his place. Lister is now the Tory candidate for Ottawa South.
“When Mr. Lister dropped out on nomination day I should have been acclaimed,” says Samuels. “Longbottom should not have been allowed to run because he had not been a member of the party long enough.” The Conservative party constitution says one must be a member for at least 14 days before one can vote or run for nomination.
A second nomination meeting was held Nov. 4 at Tory campaign headquarters. Beverley Mitchell beat out Gordon Mulcahey for the nomination. While neither Samuels nor Longbottom ran again, Samuels says he would have been interested.
“Had I known Mr. Longbottom had stepped down I would have run again, but no one told me about the meeting,” he says.
Ottawa Centre riding association president Maureen Knox says there was nothing wrong with the way the first vote was done and that, as far as she knew, both former nominees are still active in the party.
Samuels is currently running for the Canadian Action Party in Ottawa-Vanier.