Liberal MPs urge party to buttress upcoming leadership race against foreign interference
CBC
A growing chorus of Liberal MPs are calling on their party's executive to guard the upcoming leadership race — whose winner will automatically become Canada's next prime minister — from foreign interference.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, who said she's considering a leadership bid, said last year's foreign interference inquiry laid bare that Canadian political parties are vulnerable.
"I think that the Liberal Party of Canada has to deal with that," she said in French ahead of a national caucus meeting Wednesday in the capital.
"It has to find solutions because we're not going to make our democracy more fragile."
The Liberal Party's internal rules are back in the spotlight after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he'll step down as soon as his party chooses a successor.
The Governor General has also agreed to his request to prorogue Parliament until March 24. That gives the Liberals just over two months to mount a leadership campaign and ready for an all-but-certain spring election.
But the Liberal Party's constitution — mainly that it allows international students and non-Canadian residents to vote in internal party elections — is making some nervous with the spectre of foreign inference hanging over the race.
The Liberals' rules attracted scrutiny at the inquiry led by Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue.
"The eligibility criteria for voting in nomination contests do not seem very stringent, and the control measures in place do not seem very robust," Hogue wrote in her initial report last May.
Her inquiry pointed to "strong indications" that international Chinese students played a role in the 2019 Don Valley North Liberal nomination contest.
Hogue said available intelligence "reflects a well-grounded suspicion that the busing of international students was tied to the [People's Republic of China]."
MP Rob Oliphant, who represents the neighbouring riding of Don Valley West, said it would be his preference that only Canadian citizens and permanent residents in Canada be able to vote in the upcoming leadership race, as is the case for the Conservatives, NDP and Green Party.
"I think we should talk about making sure there's no foreign interference and making sure we have the guidelines and practices in place to make sure that doesn't happen," he said before the caucus meeting.
"I trust the executive to make the right decision."
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A growing chorus of Liberal MPs are calling on their party's executive to guard the upcoming leadership race — whose winner will automatically become Canada's next prime minister — from foreign interference.