BATRA'S BURNING QUESTIONS: Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why did Carney put himself in Erskine-Smith mess?

If it's not the economy that hurts the liberals that are riding high these days, the carny liberals are at least, perhaps it's the internal liberal drama that might pierce through some of that metal armor that the party enjoys right now.Hello, everyone.I'm Adrienne Batra.With me are Warren Kinsella and Brian Lilly.I'm, of course, Brian, referring to the ongoing drama.Even at time of taping, there is ongoing drama with the Scarborough Southwest nomination, where Liberal MP, Nate Erskine -Smith, who received an endorsement from Prime Minister Mark Carney, lost the nomination by 19 votes.

And there seems to be some ongoing controversy.Let's first take a look at this endorsement video from Carney for Smith.

You know, we've worked together over the course of the last year and a half.We've known each other for longer.And look, there's lots of things that distinguish you, but I want to name a few in all seriousness.One is you're a man of big ideas.You deeply care about this country and you made big contributions, but whether it's in health care, whether it's, you know, Canadians helping each other, whether it's making the economy stronger, whether it's standing up for Canada against the pressure on the other side.You've always been there, but because you're a guy who gives, you know, big ideas for the country across a huge range of things.

But one of the things that I've found is, and this is rare, to be honest, to distinguish, you know, you can have the ideas, you can have the hard work, but also to be really on the ground, really on the ground with your constituents, knowing what's going on, what their needs are and working together.

I'm going to miss being in Ottawa and being with the team and making a difference there.

So Brian, obviously anybody with two eyes and a brain looks like an endorsement.But then the Star reports, no, that wasn't an endorsement.But then there were multiple takes.Let's walk through this, Brian.

Well, I think the Star is being stunned and spun on this.and I'm not going to jump all over them.It's Rob Ferguson and Robert Benzie, two good reporters down at the Queen's Park Bureau for the Star.They're just telling us that PMO has come out now and said, oh, that endorsement?Oh, that wasn't an endorsement.I was saying goodbye to them.

at the Obama event that I was at after saying we can't be too close to the Americans.And so I went to an American event, but I wasn't endorsing him in that.I was just like, look, squirrel.I mean, that's kind of where liberals are at with this right now.They want to distract away from the disaster.I thought Warren's column earlier in the week was bang on.

Like, this is not a good look for Carney.Getting involved in a nomination race for the provincial party when one candidate is the vice president of the federal party that you lead, and that would be Havis, and the other is one of your caucus members, Erskine Smith, and you know it's going to be a nasty battle.Why get involved?You stayed out.Prime ministers will wade in or leaders will wade in when it makes sense, when there's an upside for them.No upside.

for carney in this and now they're trying to spin it that it wasn't an endorsement there were multiple takes you're right multiple takes of that video there i talked just like mark carney does repeating myself uh and saying the same phrase over and over again you know, there's no good look on this.And then there's the whole drama about, you know, demanding a recount, people visiting, voting with visitor's visas.You know, Warren will know more about nomination race internals than I do.But to me, it sounds like Erskine Smith is trying to say, oh, the other guy just cheated better with getting asylum seekers out to vote than I did.But they both did well.the same stuff.

Warren, I want to kind of go back to this whole thing about the so -called endorsement, non -endorsement and all that, you know, that theatre that we're watching unfold.I wonder if Carney thought, because you had some great commentary about it on X. I mean, you've seen nomination meetings from the most granular level.There is a different sort of permutation to how things seem to be going with the Liberal Party.They have the thought that the Prime Minister, who is popular, no question about that, if he gives Smith the sort of strong endorsement, that's going to carry him over the top.But it seems to have turned into the Carney curse.We've talked about how Carney needs to stay away from all of our sports teams because when they meet him, they lose.

So was it because Carney took Smith out of cabinet?He thought, OK, well, I'll help you out when you're pursuing your provincial when you have provincial aspirations, what do you think was going on there?

It was stupid, stupid, stupid.A prime minister is not supposed to get involved in messy provincial party nomination battles, ever.Harper didn't do it.My guy, Krecha, didn't do it.We all reach an old age in politics by staying out of crap like that.It was always going to be messy.

It was always going to be ugly, because if you get a liberal nomination, generally federally, in GTA, it means you're going to the House of Commons.You're going to win, right?You're going to be an MP.And provincial liberals are doing well, despite the fact that they are leaderless.So there's a lot of competition for this nomination as well in Scarborough Southwest.But it was stupid for Carney to do this.

Now, Carney is not a stupid guy.So I started working the phones as we say, okay was he on drugs?Did he he took drugs, right?He took drugs and that's why he did this video because it's clearly by every dictionary definition an endorsement video Yeah, so he was wasn't dropping acid I was assured of that, you know visually so why did he do this?It's because this is the third time that Nate Erskine -Smith, who is the most disliked guy in the Liberal caucus, has said he was going to leave.They want him to leave.

They want him to go.So the video was the product of a negotiation between PMO and Nate Erskine -Smith, where he said this time, no, I mean it this time, I'm really going, but I need this video.And Carney took leave of his senses and did it.And Nate Erskine -Smith, of course, dropped it the night before the nomination meeting took place.So the problem with it, of course, is, well, somebody, a PMO around the big table, should have put their hand up and said, hey, hey, Mark, Prime Minister, what if Nate loses?Then you've endorsed a loser and gotten involved in a nasty nomination battle by looking like you're putting your finger on the scale.

You're trying to interfere.Like it was so stupid in so many ways, it blows my mind.And of course, Nate's now doing what he's doing, which is operating Operation Alienation and pissing everybody off in the provincial party as well, just like he did in the federal party.So it is a mess.And for reasons I will never understand, Mark Carney inserted himself right in the middle of it.

All right, Brian, let's talk a bit more about now the ongoing controversy with respect to the nomination itself.What probably could have ended up being maybetwo, three day story is now going to be a story for us to cover till the next Scarborough Southwest nomination.But here's just a snippet of Nate Erskine -Smith after the vote, after he lost by about 19 votes, and what he said were some irregularities.

First, there were 34 more ballots ultimately counted than there were recorded voters, and no reasonable explanation for the significant discrepancy.If the same error rate occurred in a federal election, it would mean over 400 ,000 unaccounted -for ballots.Not acceptable, obviously.34 unexplained ballots in the ballot box, in a vote that was ultimately decided by a margin of 19 votes.Second, there were repeated, repeated and serious inconsistencies with respect to proof of ID and actions in the voting area that completely undermined any ballot secrecy.

So we talked about the voter ID not being appropriate, non -Canadian citizens voting.But Brian, this is a scourge for all the parties.Let's go through some of his chief complaints about what did or did not happen in this nomination.

So I'm concerned about the idea that non -citizens are voting, but none of the parties are, because they all allow it, provincially and federally.Federally, both the liberals and the conservatives now say you at least have to be a permanent resident.I think it's ridiculous that a guy in Canada on a visitor's visa was, that's what he used as his ID to vote.One, not allowed by the party, but the fact is the Ontario Liberal Party, along with the Ontario PCs, NDP, Greens, would all allow, if he had the proper ID, would all allow someone on a visitor's visato this country, meaning they have no plans of staying here.They're not regular residents that would allow them to vote in a nomination or leadership race.

That has to change.But beyond that, they were saying things like people were on their phones, so they're going into the ballot box on their phones with video calls and getting instructions on how to vote.That's not allowed in any sort of nomination race.People leaving and coming back in and out of the voting area.You'll have an area where, yeah, people can rally their candidates, but you're not supposed to be doing that in the actual voting area.They were doing that.

There are enough serious allegations that I think the party does have to look into it, but Warren's right.This is Operation Alienation.Erskine Smith has now said, He won't even, you know, you should redo the nomination, but I won't seek the nomination this time.I'll remove myself.And since then, he's also said, yeah, I'm probably not going to run for leadership of this party because, you know, I don't like how they run things.That's okay.

There's a bunch of Ontario liberals organizing to ensure he never becomes leader.Look, you said we're going to be talking about this for a while.Next Wednesday is when they will hold the, adjudicate the claims that he has made.And so it's going to be a story for another week.That's bad news for the Ontario Liberals.I know that Warren said they're up in the polls.

Bad news for them is, despite everything, our latest Leger poll shows that Doug Ford would win another majority if an election were held today.

You know, Warden, it's stories like this that, I mean, look, for political nerds like us, we can get really into the fine points of it and get really excited about it, and it's very entertaining.But a story like this does sort of, you know, pierce its way through all the different layers.there.And for the general public, what they've seen is that the liberals can't even govern themselves.They can't even run a nomination without, you know, the so -called Trumpian -style allegation of voter fraud, which, you know, the irony is not lost on me that it was a liberal claiming that.There's gonna be a process.

One of the claims is that there's 34 more ballots than there were people who voted.So I think it's legitimate that they do need to investigate it.But let's say for argument's sake, what if it's overturned?What if it turns out that Smith Act, Erskine Smith actually won this thing?And now with his declaration that, oh, I'm not gonna run again, what happens?

Well, it just continues to be a mess.And that's your point, which is, you know, if you can't run your own party, you're not going to convince anybody you can run the province or the country.You know, there's Nate Erskine -Smith being chased through the rainy parking lot, and he turns around and repeats MAGA talking points.You know, he, the poor, oppressed, white lawyer with the parliamentary pension, being, you know, having his votes stolen from him.I was half expecting him to say to his followers, let's charge into the legislature and take over the legislature building like on January the 6th.Like, it was just crazy.

And who's the happiest guy this week?Because he's been dealing with this jet thing.He's dealing with FOI stuff.He's dealing with conservation authorities.And along comes Mark Carney and Naborskin Smith to say to Doug Ford, let us take that burden off your shoulders, Doug.Let us help you get through the next few days.

That's the problem.It's like nomination battles are always messy.I mean, Mulroney pulled people, old guys out of the old mission in Montreal.I personally know a liberal cabinet minister who had a printing press in the truck of his car at a nomination meeting.Like, everybody does it, and guys like us, we've got to be honest, we love it.But it's messy, and it looks bad, and voters don't like it.

And so this is going to be like three weeks of a shit show that looks bad for the liberal brand and helps out Doug Ford.

I gotta tell you, Laura Stone from the Globe and Mail caught up with Ford and got him on camera asking him about this the other day.We'll just show you the visuals of it because Laura shared it with a bunch of us in the gallery.I mean, look at the smile on Ford's face.He's beaming ear to ear and she asks him about, you know, do you have these problems?Oh no, we're more organized.Not really.

I've been around, you know, his leadership race went way into the night and lots of, you know, odd claims there.The PCs have had to redo nomination races before, but Ford is just beaming ear to ear this week.Warren's right.

Well, before you feel too sorry for Nate Erskine -Smith about all this drama, don't forget he's got that gold -plated MP pension which he'll be able to enjoy.Well, let us know what you think in the comments below, like this video and subscribe to our YouTube channel, and go to thetorontosun .com to find commentary and coverage there you will not find anywhere else.