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Passed-over Tory hopeful 'taking the high road' after Doug Ford chooses candidate

Pat Meyers was 'stunned' when he got the call that Ray Ferraro was being handed the local nomination
20180302 Patrick Meyers KA
Patrick Meyers. GuelphToday file photo

The man denied the chance to run for the local Tory nomination in the upcoming provincial election said he is taking the high road.

Pat Meyers was running against Ray Ferraro for the local spot and was preparing for a local nomination meeting. But on Saturday, Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford handed the nomination to Ferraro.

Guelph was one of 11 ridings where Ford selected the candidate, bypassing the local nomination process.

Meyers got a call from someone in the provincial PC office informing him of the decision on Saturday afternoon.

“I was stunned. I was stunned for about 10 or 15 minutes, because I didn’t even know this could happen,” Meyers told GuelphToday.

He then called local riding president Bob Coole and asked him what was going on.

“He said ‘what do you mean?’ He didn’t even know anything about it,” Meyers said.

“Am I disappointed? Yes. I didn’t take this candidacy lightly,” said Meyers, a veterinarian who lives just outside of Guelph.

“I’m going to take the high road. I was looking forward to the nomination meeting. I don’t know if I would have won against Ray, but it certainly would have been, in my view, more of a democratic process than what happened (Saturday),” Meyers said.

Meyers assumed Guelph was going to get to select its own candidate.

“I was assured we were going to have an actual nomination meeting and we were excited about it,” he said.

At least then, he added, it’s a more democratic process and if you win or lose the nomination, at least you know that’s what the people of Guelph want.

“In this particular situation, the PC members of the Guelph riding were shortchanged. But what am I gonna’ do?” Meyers said.

“I’ve calmed down considerably since yesterday,” he said Sunday. “I’m disappointed, I’m not going to say I’m not, but in the long run I just think I’m better off taking the high road and wishing Ray the best in the election.

“I’m going to try to stay positive about it. Anger is one of the worst emotions you can have because it doesn’t do anybody any good. In this situation there’s nothing that can be done anyway.

“But I thought I had a decent chance of winning the nomination because I had a whole bunch of people that I was reaching out to that said they were going to come out to the nomination meeting to vote for me. Unfortunately, with what happened Saturday they’re not going to be able to do that.”

The move was within the party’s constitution, but it still left a sour taste in Meyers’ mouth.

“This has happened before in the Patrick Brown regime, but I didn’t think it would happen under this leader.”

Meyers said he reached out to Ferraro on Saturday and wished him all the best in the election.

“Our common goal was to defeat the Wynne government, which is the ultimate goal.”


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Tony Saxon

About the Author: Tony Saxon

Tony Saxon has had a rich and varied 30 year career as a journalist, an award winning correspondent, columnist, reporter, feature writer and photographer.
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