Liberals will defend against foreign — and furry — interference in leadership vote

Many federal Liberals are expressing concern about foreign interference in their upcoming leadership contest. But mischief-makers are presenting a different challenge: furry interference.

Liberal MPs spent much of Wednesday behind closed doors pressing for changes to leadership race rules, aiming to ensure only citizens and permanent residents can vote for the next Liberal leader. At present, a Liberal membership merely requires the interested party to be at least 14 years old. Citizenship or even permanent resident status is not required.

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Meanwhile, many prominent people are poking fun at the Liberals and their lax rules, posting on social media that they’ve registered their pets to vote.

“I want to share that my dog will be voting for Canada’s next Prime Minister. Isn’t that great? Her vote, by the way, is totally for sale,” communications strategist Dan Robertson of Pathos Strategy wrote on X Thursday.

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Another X user, activist/journalist Dahlia Kurtz, posted on Thursday that she not only registered her deceased dog to vote in the Liberal leadership race, but that he also received a welcome from the party.

“I just registered my dearly departed dog Fozzie Bear to vote in the Liberal leadership election. Yes, Fozzie Bear, will vote for the next prime minister of Canada. Imagine if I sign him up to vote with all the names I called him. Fozzie Bear will change history!

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Liberal party communications director Parker Lund said the fake sign-ups will be ferreted out.

“The Liberal Party of Canada is aware of these ridiculous, fraudulent registration attempts,” he wrote on X late on Thursday. “The national Party Secretary has the ability to remove registrants from our lists, and will be removing these fraudulent profiles well in advance of any leadership vote.”

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Lund told the National Post this week that information about the leadership race would be provided after the rules have been decided.

“Protecting the integrity of our democratic process is a foremost priority of the party,” he said.

The federal Liberals will be the first to hold a leadership convention since revelations about foreign actors such as China and India meddling in Canadian elections. (Justice Marie-Josee Hogue is set to release her final report on the foreign interference inquiry by Jan. 31.)

Among the those fraudulent sign-ups, however: Chinese President Xi Jinping. That news was shared by another X user, political newsletter writer Alex Brown.

“I gave the address for the Chinese consulate in Ottawa (to the Liberal party), and just like that, Xi Jinping was signed up to vote in the Liberal leadership race. This is too easy, even by the low standards of repeated traitors to Canada. Give it a whirl. Break it, so they have to fix it.”

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Postmedia columnist Tasha Kheiriddin signed up her pet and her daughter too. “The kid is of age, the cat is a little younger, but the absurdity is the same,” she said on X.

Lund has defended the inclusivity of the membership criteria, saying the Liberals have “built the most open and inclusive movement in Canadian politics…expanding participation in our movement, both with respect to age and citizenship status.”

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