Ruby Dhalla has secured the Liberal nomination:
OTTAWA – Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, though embroiled in controversy, has managed to gather up enough party members and donors in the past two weeks to seal her hold on the riding of Brampton-Springdale.
All 77 Liberal MPs are facing a strict June 1 deadline to have a minimum 400 paid-up members in their ridings and at least 10 "Victory Fund" donors – people committed to monthly contributions to the party.
MPs who don't meet these targets – which were set by the veteran Liberal campaign chief, Senator David Smith – will have to fight to get the party nomination in their ridings before the next election.
As Angry in the Great White North puts it...
And let's not be naive. Had Ruby Dhalla been forced into a nomination fight, and those allegations still dogged her, I'm sure the Liberal Party would have made certain the right contender beat Dhalla.
Had it played out this way, the Liberal Party could have maintained that the reason that Ruby Dhalla was no longer the candidate was simply that she failed to meet those donor goals, and then lost her subsequent nomination battle. In the next election, the Ruby Dhalla problem would have been largely neutralized.
But no such luck. Ruby Dhalla has met those donor goals, and so her nomination won't be contested. Ruby Dhalla is here to stay, at least for the time being. That in turn leads to three possible outcomes, the most likely of which is least appealing the Liberals.
One possibility is that Ruby Dhalla is totally exonerated, and she competes in her riding on a solid footing.
Not likely.
Another possibility is that the worst of the allegations are proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, and so Ruby Dhalla is forced out of politics before an election.
Also not likely.
But those two scenarios are preferred by the Liberal Party because, either way, the Ruby Dhalla problem goes away without the Liberal Party getting too deeply involved.
The third possibility is that Ruby Dhalla enters the next election as damaged goods, having been unsuccessful at shaking the allegations. Based on what we've seen so far, I think this is the most likely outcome, unless something changes dramatically.
