The federal Liberals have started listing their candidates online – including Wilson Miao who will be running as the Liberal candidate in Richmond Centre – although an election hasn’t been called yet.
There has been widespread talk, however, of the ruling Liberals calling an election for October.
Meanwhile, the NDP and Conservative websites only list their current members of Parliament.
The Liberals currently are the ruling minority government, having lost their majority government in the 2019 election.
Kenny Chiu, who was elected to represent Steveston-Richmond East in 2019 as a Conservative, said he plans to run for re-election in an “election that no one wants.”
Alice Wong, Conservative MP for Richmond Centre, will also run for re-election if Canadians go to the polls.
The Liberals don’t list a candidate for Steveston Richmond-East, but the NDP nominated Jack Trovato, a retired teacher, to run in that riding.
The NDP are currently in the process of vetting a candidate for Richmond Centre.
Both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition were in the Lower Mainland last week on campaign-style tours.
Conservative leader and Leader of the Opposition Erin O’Toole was in Richmond last week at an event organized by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce.
Chiu points to court case as possible election trigger
Normally, a minority government that wants to trigger an election would do so after a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons. However, Parliament is not expected to be in session until Sept. 20.
Chiu speculated that a current case whereby the Speaker of the House is being taken to court over the release of documents could prompt the prime minister to say his party doesn’t have the confidence of the House.
The Speaker of the House, Liberal MP Anthony Rota, is named in a lawsuit over the disclosure of documents related to the firing of two scientists.
The lawsuit was launched by the government – led by Rota’s own political party.
Opposition parties joined forces in June to pass a motion in the House of Commons ordering the Public Health Agency of Canada to turn over unredacted documents.
It specified that the Canada-China relations committee could choose to make public any redacted material.
In defiance of the order, the minority Liberal government instead provided the unredacted documents to the all-party National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, whose members must have top security clearance and are bound to secrecy.
But Rota ruled that's not an acceptable alternative since the national security committee, a relatively new body created by the Trudeau government, is not a standing committee of Parliament.
He ruled that there is no limit on the power of the House or its committees to order the production of sensitive documents and to determine how they're to be handled.
"It is for the House, not the government, to decide how such documents are to be reviewed and what safeguards to put in place, if any," Rota ruled.
This situation might be what the Liberals use as an excuse to call an election, Chiu said.
“It’s not a cliché to say it’s unprecedented,” he said. “It is unprecedented.”
This would allow the prime minister to ask the Governor General, Mary Simon ,who was just appointed last week, to dissolve Parliament.
- with files from Canadian Press
