At 2.59pm on Saturday 19 October 2024 the Chair of the Newmarket-Aurora Federal Liberal Association told members and supporters by email that the Association was searching for a new candidate to replace Tony Van Bynen who is retiring. 

Matt Gunning invited the riding’s Liberals to suggest suitable people to the Search Committee who would take it from there. 

He told members he was looking forward to hearing from them!

The rigorous process of selecting a candidate worthy of representing the riding in the Federal Parliament would then begin.

Acclamation

At 1.40pm on Tuesday 22 October 2024 the very same members of the Liberal Party in Newmarket-Aurora were informed that the Party’s candidate in the next Federal election would be Jennifer McLachlan. She was acclaimed.

The Search Committee didn’t have to do much searching. It was all stitched up a long time ago.

Jennifer McLauchlan apparently works from time to time in Van Bynen’s office.

McLauchlan wants to be Prime Minister

On 22 June 2022 Newmarket Today told us the Cachet Supper Club owner Jennifer McLachlan was working toward a new career or two. 

But she also has her sights set on entering the political world as a future candidate. She said she will spend more time working at Newmarket-Aurora MP Tony Van Bynen’s office once she departs Cachet. 

“I want to be prime minister. I told (Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) to his face when he was here last year.”

“I said it this way: ‘I’m not saying you’re doing a bad job, and I’m not that gal. But I would like someone to mentor me because I’d like to take over when you’re done.’”

Alas, her plans may be cruelly thwarted.

The ambitious Jennifer McLachlan may not be in Parliament by the time Trudeau is done.

Corruption

The whole episode illustrates the complete corruption of Team Trudeau’s phoney “nomination process”

Party members are invited to help select a new candidate and 71 hours later are presented with a fait accompli.  

Not even the pretence of going through the motions.

Of course, it’s not just Team Trudeau that stitches things up.

Hand-picked

Newmarket-Aurora’s MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, worked as Christine Elliott’s Constituency Office Manager before being hand-picked by Doug Ford to be the Progressive Conservative candidate at the last Provincial election in 2022.

The nomination procedures of political parties in Canada are crying out to be independently monitored and regulated.

It is not just China and India that are trying to put compliant MPs into the Ottawa Parliament.

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Update on 25 October 2024: This morning at 9.20am (Friday) I received a call from a senior, long-standing member of the Newmarket-Aurora Federal Liberal Riding Association telling me I should have “checked my facts” before posting my blog on the acclamation of Jennifer McLaughlan. He said the nomination process in Newmarket-Aurora had been lengthy.

I’ve asked him for copies of all emails and other communications to Liberal Party members and supporters in Newmarket Aurora which relate to the nomination and selection of a candidate for the upcoming Federal election. As soon as I have these to hand I shall post them in their entirety.

My blogs express my opinions. I do not post information that I know to be false or inaccurate. 

In my 23 October 2024 blog I included a link to an Andrew Coyne piece in the Globe and Mail on 26 September 2024. He writes:

“… in the last Liberal leadership race, potential voters were not even required to purchase a membership, but only to declare themselves “supporters,” severing the last remaining link in the evidentiary chain, the credit-card receipt.

Historically, party nomination and leadership races, and the shenanigans attending thereto, have mostly been a source of entertainment for the rest of us: If they tended to be crooked, that was a matter for the crooks to settle amongst themselves. But when these races are being gamed, not by colourful local fixers, but by sinister foreign dictatorships, the whole business loses its Runyonesque charm.”

Update on 29 October 2024 from the CBC: The Government's days are numbered

________________

19 October 2024:

Dear Newmarket-Aurora Federal Liberal members and supporters;

Our current Member of Parliament, Tony Van Bynen has announced his retirement from politics and his decision to not seek another term. As a result, your Federal Liberal Riding Association has formed a Candidate Search Committee, with the goal of identifying potential candidate nominees for further review by the National Candidate Search Committee and subsequently for voting on when our Candidate Nomination Meeting takes place.

We are inviting all supporters of our Newmarket-Aurora federal riding to put forward names of community members who may be interested in seeking the nomination and who you feel deserve consideration. Please send names, contact information, and a brief note about why you are recommending them for inclusion in our search process. We look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,

Matt Gunning

Chair, Newmarket-Aurora Federal Liberal EDA

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22 October 2024:

We’re pleased to share that Jennifer McLachlan has been acclaimed as the Liberal Candidate for Newmarket--Aurora in the next federal election, and will continue building on our hard work to keep Canada moving forward.

With a strong focus on important new engagement with Canadians, the Team Trudeau nominations process helps ensure we’re ready to re-elect our dedicated Liberal team in Parliament and continue to elect even more talented, diverse, and hardworking community leaders as Liberal MPs across Canada, whenever the next campaign eventually arrives.

As we look forward to the important work ahead of us, the hope and hard work of Liberals across Canada will ensure our candidates and teams are ready to run competitive campaigns and earn another mandate from Canadians – including right here in Newmarket--Aurora.

For more information on the nomination process, please click here.

Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Terry Duguid & Soraya Martinez Ferrada
National Campaign Co-Chairs
Liberal Party of Canada

Update on 24 October 2024 from Newmarket Today