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  "description": "The Ontario Liberal Party MIGH do the smart thing and redo the Scarborough Southwest nomination. But don’t mistake a practical necessity for a moral awakening.",
  "path": "/editorial-the-liberals-are-about-to-learn-that-a-do-over-wont-erase-the-stench/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-13T20:13:12.000Z",
  "site": "https://provincialtimes.ca",
  "tags": [
    "declared Ahsanul Hafiz's 19‑vote victory clean,",
    "linking to videos depicting incestuous sexual assault.",
    "are you spending your Saturday knocking on doors for this guy?",
    "Erskine–Smith has already signalled he won't run in SSW again.",
    "small donation.",
    "Read our Content Policy here."
  ],
  "textContent": "Ontario Liberal Party (OLP) leader John Fraser shot from the hip on Saturday night, declared Ahsanul Hafiz's 19‑vote victory clean, and told anyone with eyes to move along. Within 48 hours, every Liberal staffer and MPP with a functioning survival instinct was walking that statement back in private.\n\nThey know he stepped on a rake, and Fraser just made it **impossible** to pretend the OLP establishment cares about fairness. Now the smart money says they'll order a new vote, because the alternative is watching Ahsanul Hafiz get torn apart by the ONDP and the PC's in a by-election, and taking every Liberal MPP down with him.\n\nLet us be blunt about Hafiz, since the Liberals still can’t bring themselves to say it: the man is **radioactive**. Not \"controversial.\" Not \"embattled.\" _Radioactive._ You cannot run a candidate whose verified Facebook account spent years linking to videos depicting incestuous sexual assault. You cannot run a candidate who won a nomination where the ballots outnumbered the voters.\n\nAnd you **certainly** cannot run a candidate whose campaign infrastructure reportedly included a known pedophile, a detail the party has still not addressed, because addressing it would require admitting they knew.\n\n## Subscribe for issues and perspectives that mainstream outlets often ignore\n\nWe bring insights, analysis, and news that challenge the status quo.\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nAsk yourself: if you're a Liberal MPP in a neighbouring riding, are you spending your Saturday knocking on doors for this guy? Are you asking volunteers to defend the indefensible? _Of course not._ You're hoping he quietly disappears so you don't have to answer for him at a single all‑candidates debate.\n\nErskine–Smith has already signalled he won't run in SSW again. Smart man. He saw the machine up close—the membership purges, the stuffed ballot box, the leader who threw him under the bus before the appeal was even filed. Why would he let the party use him a second time to launder its credibility?\n\nSo the OLP establishment will run someone else. Maybe a sacrificial lamb. Maybe a \"unity\" candidate nobody has heard of. And that person will walk into a general election carrying _the same stench_ that Hafiz would have carried, just with a different name on the ballot. Because the rot in Scarborough Southwest is about a culture that protects predators, purges reformers, and treats its own code of conduct like wet tissue paper.\n\nThe party establishment now faces two options, and neither one is pretty.\n\n  * **Option one:** pretend Saturday's vote was legitimate and watch Hafiz get slaughtered in the by-election while every Liberal in the GTA spends six weeks explaining why they're okay with fraud and filth.\n  * **Option two:** redo the nomination, admit there was a problem, and s _till watch the new candidate struggle_ because the entire province now knows what the Liberal brand stands for in that corner of the city.\n\n\n\nOne option cooks you a little. The other option cooks you a _lot_. And the fact that the party is only considering a do‑over because they're scared of the _political_ consequences—not because anyone actually believes in clean process or survivor justice—tells you everything you need to know.\n\nJohn Fraser had a chance to lead. Instead, he chose to protect the machine. Now he gets to clean up the mess. A new nomination vote won't erase the stench. But it might buy the Liberals just enough time to pretend they learned something.\n\n## Tired of seeing important stories swept under the rug by the right-wing establishment media?\n\nSubscribe and get the full picture. Stay updated, stay informed, and join a community that values truth and transparency. Subscribe to The Provincial Times for free to receive new stories and support our work!\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nDid you like this article? Consider a small donation.\n\n* * *\n\n_This piece was written and published by The Provincial Times Editorial Board and reflects the editorial position of The Provincial Times._ Read our Content Policy here.",
  "title": "EDITORIAL: The Liberals are about to learn that a do‑over won’t erase the stench",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-13T20:13:13.932Z"
}