- MacPolitics: Battiste Wants To Be Acclaimed In New Riding – But His Home Is In Another New Riding
By Andrew Macdonald
As The Macdonald Notebook reports MP Mike Kelloway is seeking to win the new nod in Sydney-Glace Bay – mostly because his hometown is in the new riding. He resides and grew up in Glace Bay.
His current Cape Breton-Canso seat is disappearing.
Cape Breton has two ridings, and the other Caper MP Jaime Battiste is losing his seat of Sydney-Victoria.
Technically his hometown will be placed in a new riding being called Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish.
But, Battiste who unsuccessfully fought against the electoral boundary commission’s new riding designs at the courts, now wants to be acclamed in the new riding of Sydney-Glace Bay.
Brass at the Liberal Party of Canada can acclam a sitting MP so that a contest can be avoided.
It is a real test of democracy for the Liberals because the two new ridings do not have an incumbent MP, despite assertions from Battiste, who says he is the incumbent MP for the new riding of Sydney-Glace Bay.
Battiste says 75 per cent of his current riding is forming the new riding, but his home is in the other new riding, Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish.
His hometown is Eskasoni, an Indigenous community.
In fact, in deciding to challenge Kelloway by running in Sydney-Glace Bay, and not the riding he lives in, Battiste is abandoning five of the six First Nations in Cape Breton.
A few weeks ago, he played the First Nation card, when he announced a run for the federal Liberal leadership race, surrounded by a handful of First Nation chiefs – a week later he withdrew from the race and is now backing Mark Carney.
The fight for the nomination in Sydney-Glace Bay has attracted media publicity in Ottawa. One newspaper there declared: “Liberal MPs Battiste and Kelloway spar over nomination for same Nova Scotia seat”.
The Hill Times also reported: “The Liberal Party is declining to say how they will settle this dispute.”
“Liberal MP Jaime Battiste says he is the incumbent for the newly-formed Sydney-Glace Bay, N.S., riding given it contains much of his current riding, while Mike Kelloway says the new electoral boundaries mean there are no incumbents,” the media outlet reported.
The newspaper reported the fight between the two MPs represented a “war of words” after both MPs declared they would seek the new riding.
On Facebook, Battiste said he is the “incumbent” for the new riding, suggesting that is the case since 75 per cent of his current riding is making up the new riding in Sydney-Glace Bay.
Battiste “said he will be the party’s candidate in the next election, citing the Liberal Party’s criteria for incumbent MPs to be automatically acclaimed if they meet three conditions,” the Ottawa newspaper reported.
“According to a Feb. 7 Facebook post by Battiste, the party has not indicated any plans to open the nomination contest publicly.”
“Representatives of the party have confirmed to me that the rules will be followed, and I look forward to it clarifying any misinformation spread throughout Cape Breton in the days to come,” wrote Battiste, who has been parliamentary secretary to the Crown-Indigenous relations minister since December 2021. “As previously stated, I have satisfied the criteria for acclamation as the Liberal Party of Canada candidate for Sydney-Glace-Bay-and I will stand as the candidate in this riding.”
According to the HT, “In November 2022, the Liberal Party introduced new nomination rules for incumbent MPs if they want to carry their party’s banner without going through a contested nomination process. To do so, each MP had to have at least 65 per cent of the anticipated expense limit in their respective electoral district’s association bank account by March 1, 2023; had to have at least 40 more Victory Fund members compared to the number they had on July 1, 2022; and attempted to knock on at least 3,500 doors or make 7,500 phone calls along with their team of volunteers.”
“Battiste…stated he has met the three required conditions. The party has yet not officially nominated him for the next election.”
But MP Mike Kelloway “challenged Battiste’s claim of incumbency, arguing in a Feb. 7 Facebook post that Sydney-Glace Bay is a newly created riding where no MP has previously been elected.”
“Unlike what some have publicly attempted to assert, there is no incumbent or assumed candidate for this riding—a new constituency for which no representative has ever been elected,” said Kelloway on social media.
“The Liberal Party of Canada, therefore, must render a decision on which candidate to nominate on this blank slate.”
“In an email to The Hill Times, Parker Lund, director of communications to the Liberal Party, said the party has not yet nominated a candidate for Sydney-Glace Bay. Lund declined to confirm whether the selection would be determined through a nomination election,” said the media outlet.
“The Liberal Party has not yet announced a candidate for Sydney-Glace Bay,” wrote Lund in his email. “The nomination process will move forward in due course, and will be fully in line with all of the Party’s nomination rules.”
Liberal MP Jaime Battiste, (The Notebook).
Member of Parliament Mike Kelloway. (Facebook)
