Politics is a bruising business at the best of times. But some parts of it are uglier than others.
Last weekend, federal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith unexpectedly lost his bid to become the Ontario Liberal candidate in a Toronto-area riding. For Erskine-Smith, who had designs to run for the party’s leadership, the loss is a major setback.
Erskine-Smith has filed an appeal, alleging irregularities in the voting process that led to him losing the race by 19 votes.
These include claims that around 500 people in the voting room had issues providing proper identification, and that about 175 of those were nonetheless deemed eligible to vote. Some voters reportedly used Amazon orders and refugee claimant papers to prove they could vote.
The incident feels local. But the problems it points to are not. Internal party races, both provincially and federally, should be subject to tighter rules around who gets to vote and who oversees internal party races.
The Ontario Liberal Party’s rules are merely a case in point.
One issue is the party’s constitution does not require someone to be a citizen or even permanent resident to vote in party races. Non-citizens, including people on student or work visas, are all eligible to vote.
Federally, the Bloc Quebecois also allows temporary residents to vote in internal races. Until early 2025, the federal Liberals did as well.
Now, the Liberals and the Conservatives, New Democrat and Green parties only permit citizens and permanent residents to vote.
Some experts take issue with even permanent residents being allowed to vote.
“They’re not Canadians,” Duff Conacher, co-founder of the accountability watchdog Democracy Watch, previously told Canadian Affairs. “They shouldn’t be choosing election candidates for Canadian elections.”
Reasonable people can disagree on this point. But we find it patently unreasonable that temporary residents are permitted to have a say in any party races. The stakes of internal party races are too high.
Many ridings, both federally and provincially, have long histories of consistently voting for a single party. In such ridings, the real election is the internal party race.
Vulnerable to abuse
Closely related to the issue of who gets to vote is the matter of how races are run.
Canada has independent agencies tasked with ensuring the integrity of election processes. Federally, this is Elections Canada; provincially, it includes agencies such as Elections BC, Elections Saskatchewan, Élections Québec and the like.
And yet, these neutral bodies do not oversee voter eligibility or voting mechanics in internal party races. Instead, these races are overseen by the parties themselves, using their own procedures and returning officers.
This can lead to serious gaps.
For example, in the recent federal NDP leadership election, Canadian Affairs repeatedly asked an NDP spokesperson to clarify whether the party requires voters to produce any government-issued identification to vote. The spokesperson declined to comment.
As experts have said, this makes our electoral processes vulnerable to abuse.
“[The rules] obviously allow foreign governments, entities and individuals to use people here in Canada who aren’t citizens … as proxies to try and influence who gets selected as election candidates,” said Conacher.
This is not an idle concern. Just recall the 16-month federal inquiry into allegations that China directed international students to vote in a Liberal nomination contest in Toronto.
That inquiry culminated in the 2025 Hogue report, which recommended parties stop permitting temporary residents to vote in internal races. That that may have prompted the federal Liberals to change their rules. Now, other parties must follow suit.
There is a similarly simple fix to the problem of too little oversight of internal party races: Put independent election agencies in charge of overseeing internal party races.
We say “simple” in the sense that the solution is obvious. But we do not mean “simple” in the sense of achieving such a change. Politicians set the rules for their own conduct, and rarely have reason to make those rules any stricter.
Unless, of course, you end up like Erskine-Smith, on the losing end of a race.
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