Alan Riddell
Encyclopedia
Alan Riddell is a bilingual labour relations lawyer
and partner with the law firm of Soloway Wright LLP in Ottawa
, Canada
. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto
and France
's Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris
. While still a student, he worked for Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Senator and Foreign Affairs Critic Heath MacQuarrie
, and later in the office of Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney
. As a young lawyer he successfully argued a number of high profile cases, including the landmark decision of Dagg v. Minister of Finance in the Supreme Court of Canada
, which defined the privacy rights of federal public servants under Canada's new Access to Information Act
.
In March 2004, Riddell was approached by the Conservative Party of Canada
(CPC) to run as its candidate in the riding of Ottawa South
, which was being vacated by Deputy Prime Minister
, John Manley
. He handily defeated others, including former Ottawa mayoralty candidate Terry Kilrea
, for the 2004 CPC nomination. In the ensuing election, he ran against two nationally known names: David McGuinty
, the younger brother of Ontario Liberal Party
Premier Dalton McGuinty
, and Monia Mazigh
, of the New Democratic Party
(NDP), best known as the wife of wrongfully imprisoned Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar
. Although the riding was traditionally Liberal, it was thought that Riddell's background and dynamism, together with voter backlash against Liberal broken promises, gave him a good chance of winning.
By the middle of the campaign, Riddell began to lead McGuinty and Mazigh in the polls, and many believed he would score an upset victory over the Liberals
. In the final days of the campaign, however, urban voters across Ontario shifted away from the Conservatives, thereby ensuring reelection of the Liberal govennment. In addition, only a few days prior to the vote, the Ottawa Sun
published a damaging front-page story about Riddell, that was later retracted as inaccurate. Despite this erroneous news story, and the last minute shift in voter support, Riddell finished the election with more than 20,600 votes, the highest number ever recorded by a Conservative candidate in the riding's history, thereby finishing a relatively close second to McGuinty.
After the election was over, the Ottawa Sun published a prominent retraction of its erroneous front-page story about Riddell and expressed regret at "the resulting prejudice to his campaign".
In May 2005, when it appeared that the Liberal government was about to be defeated and another election called, Riddell was recruited to run in Ottawa South a second time. In reaction to rumours that he had once worn a World War II
German officer's costume to a campus costume party, as a teenage Halloween prank 28 years earlier, Conservative officials initially blocked Riddell's renomination as the Party's candidate. Riddell's disqualification caused a public outcry from Riddell's supporters across Ottawa, and was quickly set aside by the Conservative Party's National Arbitration Committee, which issued a binding directive to Party officials permitting him to be the party's candidate in Ottawa South a second time.
Only three days prior to the 2006 election
, which the Conservative Party hoped to win by focusing voter attention on the Liberal government's sponsorship scandal, Riddell stepped aside as the Party's candidate to enable Allan Cutler
, the public servant who had blown the whistle on the scandal, to run in his stead in Ottawa South. Party officials issued a Press release thanking Riddell for his gesture and confirming that the Party "looked forward to having him run as its candidate in future elections". To compensate Riddell for relinquishing the nomination to Cutler, in a move designed to help them win the national campaign, they undertook to repay him his campaign expenses, pursuant to an agreement which Party Executive Director Michael Donison described in writing as legally "binding". Although Elections Canada later ruled the agreement to be legal, when news of the Party's agreement surfaced in the press, senior Party officials, including Party Leader Stephen Harper
, publicly denied its existence.
After the Conservative victory in the election, Conservative Party officials refused to honour the agreement, and Riddell was
eventually forced to apply to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
for a Court Order that it be implemented.
On January 11, 2007, after a two-day court hearing, Judge Denis Power of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued a decision confirming that the Party's agreement with Riddell was legally binding, and ordering it to immediately pay Riddell. The Judge ruled that when Riddell had stepped aside for Cutler, he had been "the preferred choice of the clear majority" and that "the evidence, taken as whole, clearly establishes that an agreement was reached". He concluded that "the crux of the agreement was that Mr. Riddell, the leading contender for the nomination, agreed to voluntarily step aside in favour of Allan Cutler in exchange for which he was to receive some financial compensation for expenses incurred by him in seeking the nomination".
In a news article reporting on this Ontario Superior Court decision, Riddell was quoted as saying that he "remained a loyal Conservative" and that he intended to run again as a candidate for the Party some day.
In November 2007, Riddell, the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister quietly settled the case. The settlement was announced by a one-sentence joint news release by the Conservative Party and Alan Riddell, issued on an early Saturday morning: "The Conservative Party of Canada and Alan Riddell announce they have mutually settled all legal proceedings brought by Mr. Riddell against the Conservative Party of Canada and Conservative party officials."
Ottawa Citizen
May 18, 2005 pg. A.12
suspended" Ottawa Citizen
. June 21, 2004. pg. A.7
Citizen December 6, 2005. pg. A.3
A.5
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and partner with the law firm of Soloway Wright LLP in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
's Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris
Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris
The Institut d'études politiques de Paris , simply referred to as Sciences Po , is a public research and higher education institution in Paris, France, specialised in the social sciences. It has the status of grand établissement, which allows its admissions process to be highly selective...
. While still a student, he worked for Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
Senator and Foreign Affairs Critic Heath MacQuarrie
Heath MacQuarrie
Heath Nelson Macquarrie was a Canadian politician, teacher, scholar, and writer...
, and later in the office of Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
. As a young lawyer he successfully argued a number of high profile cases, including the landmark decision of Dagg v. Minister of Finance in the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
, which defined the privacy rights of federal public servants under Canada's new Access to Information Act
Access to Information Act
Access to Information Act or Information Act is a Canadian act providing the right of access to information under the control of a government institution...
.
In March 2004, Riddell was approached by the Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
(CPC) to run as its candidate in the riding of Ottawa South
Ottawa South
Ottawa South is a federal electoral district in Ottawa in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by David McGuinty, brother of Ontario Premier and Ottawa South MPP Dalton McGuinty. The riding was created in 1987 from parts of Ottawa—Vanier, Ottawa...
, which was being vacated by Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some counties, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, but is significantly different, though both...
, John Manley
John Manley
John Manley may refer to:* John Manley , English soldier, MP and Postmaster General* John Manley, Canadian politician* John Manley , British archaeologist* John H. Manley, American nuclear physicist...
. He handily defeated others, including former Ottawa mayoralty candidate Terry Kilrea
Terry Kilrea
Terry Kilrea is an aspiring politician from Ottawa.-2003 election:Kilrea ran for mayor of Ottawa in the 2003 municipal election on a platform that included opposition to light rail expansion, opposition to official bilingualism, abolition of the ban on smoking in public places, and an increase of...
, for the 2004 CPC nomination. In the ensuing election, he ran against two nationally known names: David McGuinty
David McGuinty
David Joseph McGuinty, MP is a Canadian lawyer politician from Ontario, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Ottawa South and sits in the Canadian House of Commons as the Liberal Party of Canada's Critic for Natural Resources...
, the younger brother of Ontario Liberal Party
Ontario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...
Premier Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....
, and Monia Mazigh
Monia Mazigh
Monia Mazigh is a Canadian academic best known for her efforts to free her husband Maher Arar from a Syrian prison. A resident of Ottawa, Ontario, she was the New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of Ottawa South, a traditionally Liberal riding, in the 2004 federal election.She was born...
, of the New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
(NDP), best known as the wife of wrongfully imprisoned Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar
Maher Arar
Maher Arar is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada. Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition" but the U.S. government insisted it was a case of deportation.Arar was detained during a layover at John F...
. Although the riding was traditionally Liberal, it was thought that Riddell's background and dynamism, together with voter backlash against Liberal broken promises, gave him a good chance of winning.
By the middle of the campaign, Riddell began to lead McGuinty and Mazigh in the polls, and many believed he would score an upset victory over the Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
. In the final days of the campaign, however, urban voters across Ontario shifted away from the Conservatives, thereby ensuring reelection of the Liberal govennment. In addition, only a few days prior to the vote, the Ottawa Sun
Ottawa Sun
The Ottawa Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is published by Sun Media. It was first published in the early 1980s as the Ottawa Sunday Herald, until it was acquired by Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation in 1988....
published a damaging front-page story about Riddell, that was later retracted as inaccurate. Despite this erroneous news story, and the last minute shift in voter support, Riddell finished the election with more than 20,600 votes, the highest number ever recorded by a Conservative candidate in the riding's history, thereby finishing a relatively close second to McGuinty.
After the election was over, the Ottawa Sun published a prominent retraction of its erroneous front-page story about Riddell and expressed regret at "the resulting prejudice to his campaign".
In May 2005, when it appeared that the Liberal government was about to be defeated and another election called, Riddell was recruited to run in Ottawa South a second time. In reaction to rumours that he had once worn a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
German officer's costume to a campus costume party, as a teenage Halloween prank 28 years earlier, Conservative officials initially blocked Riddell's renomination as the Party's candidate. Riddell's disqualification caused a public outcry from Riddell's supporters across Ottawa, and was quickly set aside by the Conservative Party's National Arbitration Committee, which issued a binding directive to Party officials permitting him to be the party's candidate in Ottawa South a second time.
Only three days prior to the 2006 election
Canadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...
, which the Conservative Party hoped to win by focusing voter attention on the Liberal government's sponsorship scandal, Riddell stepped aside as the Party's candidate to enable Allan Cutler
Allan Cutler
Allan S. Cutler is a former Canadian public servant notable for his role as the whistleblower who reported anomalies in a Canadian sponsorship program designed to raise awareness in Quebec of the Government of Canada's contributions to Quebec industries and culture. This program was undertaken to...
, the public servant who had blown the whistle on the scandal, to run in his stead in Ottawa South. Party officials issued a Press release thanking Riddell for his gesture and confirming that the Party "looked forward to having him run as its candidate in future elections". To compensate Riddell for relinquishing the nomination to Cutler, in a move designed to help them win the national campaign, they undertook to repay him his campaign expenses, pursuant to an agreement which Party Executive Director Michael Donison described in writing as legally "binding". Although Elections Canada later ruled the agreement to be legal, when news of the Party's agreement surfaced in the press, senior Party officials, including Party Leader Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
, publicly denied its existence.
After the Conservative victory in the election, Conservative Party officials refused to honour the agreement, and Riddell was
eventually forced to apply to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Ontario Superior Court of Justice
The Superior Court of Justice is the superior court of general jurisdiction for the Province of Ontario, Canada. It is the successor to the former Ontario Court of Justice , and was created on April 19, 1999...
for a Court Order that it be implemented.
On January 11, 2007, after a two-day court hearing, Judge Denis Power of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued a decision confirming that the Party's agreement with Riddell was legally binding, and ordering it to immediately pay Riddell. The Judge ruled that when Riddell had stepped aside for Cutler, he had been "the preferred choice of the clear majority" and that "the evidence, taken as whole, clearly establishes that an agreement was reached". He concluded that "the crux of the agreement was that Mr. Riddell, the leading contender for the nomination, agreed to voluntarily step aside in favour of Allan Cutler in exchange for which he was to receive some financial compensation for expenses incurred by him in seeking the nomination".
In a news article reporting on this Ontario Superior Court decision, Riddell was quoted as saying that he "remained a loyal Conservative" and that he intended to run again as a candidate for the Party some day.
In November 2007, Riddell, the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister quietly settled the case. The settlement was announced by a one-sentence joint news release by the Conservative Party and Alan Riddell, issued on an early Saturday morning: "The Conservative Party of Canada and Alan Riddell announce they have mutually settled all legal proceedings brought by Mr. Riddell against the Conservative Party of Canada and Conservative party officials."
Uncited Sources
- "Court hears privacy issue" Edmonton JournalEdmonton JournalThe Edmonton Journal is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network.-History:The Journal was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as a rival to Alberta's first newspaper, the 23-year-old...
Edmonton, AB. December 8, 1995. pg A.4 - "Riding chooses Conservative candidate" Ottawa CitizenOttawa CitizenThe Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
Ottawa, ON. March 9, 2004. pg C.2 - "Retraction:Re Alan Riddell." Ottawa SunOttawa SunThe Ottawa Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is published by Sun Media. It was first published in the early 1980s as the Ottawa Sunday Herald, until it was acquired by Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation in 1988....
. November 28, 2004. - "Turner Pulls Plug on his Tory Campaign:.." Ottawa CitizenOttawa CitizenThe Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
July 16, 2005. pg. E.3 - "Ex-Candidate Says Tories blocked his nomination over teen 'prank'"
Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
May 18, 2005 pg. A.12
- "Barred Conservative candidate gets second chance" CBC.CA News July 22, 2005 10:35 AM EDT
- Eaves, Sutton "Riddell feels voters' wrath for driving while
suspended" Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
. June 21, 2004. pg. A.7
- "Press Release" Conservative Party of Canada, November 25, 2005
- Butler, Don "Deal Cut with Riddell, e-mails show:" Ottawa
Citizen December 6, 2005. pg. A.3
- Turchansky, Lorraine "Harper stands by Cutler's nomination" Ottawa SunOttawa SunThe Ottawa Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is published by Sun Media. It was first published in the early 1980s as the Ottawa Sunday Herald, until it was acquired by Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation in 1988....
December 5, 2005 - Bryden, Joan "Conservatives must pay up to $50,000 to candidate who stepped aside for star" Ottawa CitizenOttawa CitizenThe Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
January 13, 2007. pg.
A.5