Politics is always full of conspiracy theories.
Politics during election season takes those conspiracy theories and injects them with meth and steroids.
Which is where we are at with the federal byelection in Burnaby South. With federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh running, this isn’t just any old byelection. There’s so much heat on this one I needed to lather up with 50 SPF just to write this blog.
Things, of course, have dragged on for months, ever since Kennedy Stewart quit on his consituents.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his own sweet, damn time calling the byelection – the announcement came Wednesday - which leads us to the latest crazy conspiracy theory.
It basically says that Trudeau and the Liberals actually WANT Singh to win Burnaby South.
Most seem to think Singh will win, but who knows. Stewart only won by about 500 votes.
If Singh loses, then all hell breaks loose, mostly likely resulting in him being replaced as leader of the party.
With the federal NDP polling barely above the popularity of leprosy under Singh’s leadership, the theory says that the Liberals want him to stay in charge of the party – predicting that his polling numbers will stay in a deep slumber. After all, it’s possible another leader could take over and turn things around – although considering the party’s dire financial situation, I highly doubt it.
So, do you think the Liberals want him to win?
One thing that makes me doubt the theory is that the Liberals decided to run a candidate in the byelection. The federal Greens sat this one out, respecting a long-held tradition to not run against party leaders looking to win their first seat. The Liberals could have done the same and leaving Singh to only face a Conservative candidate.
But look who the Liberals nominated. Karen Wang isn’t a bad candidate. She lives in the riding and is a successful business owner. But she also lost in the last provincial election against Anne Kang.
Compare that to the person who many people were telling me would win the Liberal nomination for Burnaby South - Richard Lee, who served four terms as a Burnaby MLA for the BC Liberals before losing to the NDP’s Janet Routledge.
Lee is a far-better known politician and was expected to run for the nomination. But, when it happened late last month, he wasn’t in the race.
Was that by design?
The conspiracy theorists would say so…
