The Liberal Party riding association in Etobicoke-Lakeshore is angry that author and scholar Michael Ignatieff is being parachuted into the Toronto-area constituency as a star candidate. It says he disparaged Ukrainian heritage in one of his books and that two other candidates with deep ties to the community were unable to file their nomination papers.
"I don't think he's the candidate for this riding," said Ron Chyczij, party president in the riding that has one of the largest Ukrainian populations in the country. "He's offended a large portion of the electorate by his past writings. He would not be our first choice."
Mr. Chyczij said he learned late Friday that MP Jean Augustine was retiring to make way for Mr. Ignatieff, 58. The son of a Russian émigré, he is being touted as a future Liberal Party leader. Mr. Chyczij said he and another potential candidate, Marc Shwec, quickly completed the extensive nomination paperwork, including police and credit checks, before a 5 p.m. Saturday deadline. But when they arrived at party headquarters in Toronto, the doors were already locked and staffers inside refused to open them or to answer phone calls, he said.
"I hammered the door so hard I thought I was going to break either my wrist or the door," Mr. Chyczij said yesterday.
He slipped the papers under the door and watched someone pick them up 45 minutes later. The riding association, he said, hasn't heard whether the applications have been accepted.
Mr. Chyczij, 55, a senior review officer at the Pay Equity Commission of Ontario, said Prime Minister Paul Martin could have appointed a candidate for the riding. But since the Liberal Party decided to have a nomination meeting, it must follow due process. He said the party was supposed to give association members at least seven days notice of any nomination meeting, but was told Friday it will be held on Wednesday.
"I just think it's a sham," he said of Mr. Ignatieff's bid to run. "There's due process here and we got to keep this process alive."
Steven MacKinnon, the Liberal Party's national director, said yesterday that there was no problem with the timing of the delivery of the papers for the two other potential candidates. He said Mr. Chyczij's documents could be examined when the party's office opened today. But he said Mr. Shwec doesn't appear to be a member of the Liberal Party, which would mean he could not seek a nomination.
A riding-association spokeswoman said yesterday that Mr. Shwec, 45, a finance director at a Canadian bank and an active member of the Ukrainian community, paid his membership dues earlier this month. Myroslava Oleksiuk, the association's membership secretary, said she has collected paperwork from several new members, but hasn't had a chance to deliver them to the Liberal Party headquarters.
Mr. Shwec said he has become "disenchanted" with the events of the past few days. "If this is a start, imagine how it gets when you actually hit your enemies. This is [happening]within the party. What do you do when you start fighting the other parties and you actually go into election mode?"
Yesterday, about 40 Toronto residents with Ukrainian roots protested outside Liberal Party headquarters. They carried placards that read "Local Liberals locked out" and "Backroom deals kill democracy."
Protesters claim that Mr. Ignatieff made anti-Ukrainian comments in his book Blood and Belonging.
Mr. Ignatieff wrote: "I have reasons to take the Ukraine seriously indeed. But, to be honest, I'm having trouble. Ukrainian independence conjures up images of peasant embroidered shirts, the nasal whine of ethnic instruments, phony Cossacks in cloaks and boots . . ."
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, an umbrella group representing 1.2-million members, said yesterday Mr. Ignatieff should be not be allowed to run for the Liberal Party because of views he's expressed about Ukrainians in his book. It issued a news release calling on Mr. Martin to disqualify Mr. Ignatieff as a candidate.
Caroline Alphonso