Doug Ford loyalist running in HWAD to 'unite (Ontario PC) party members'

The Hamilton region co-ordinator of Doug Ford's Ontario PC leadership campaign is running in the controversial Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas nomination contest this month.

Vincent Samuel, who campaigned locally for Ford's winning campaign this year, has been approved as a nominee for HWAD.

"I am running to unite party members, and our riding to take on the irresponsible Wynne government as a part of Doug Ford's team," Samuel said in a media release Thursday.

"Let's move forward with a fresh start together."

Samuel's run is the latest development in a hotly contested riding that has included police investigations, court challenges, and now, doing the entire race over again.

It started back in May, when Ben Levitt, Vikram Singh, Jeff Peller and Jobson Easow vied for the nomination. That meeting, where Levitt was declared winner, was "the biggest undemocratic sh-t show I've ever witnessed," Peller said then.

Peller and Singh both asked the party to review the nomination, which then-leader Patrick Brown didn't do. Then both asked Ontario courts to do a judicial review.

Peller dropped his court challenge in October. Singh stuck with it longer, but dropped his challenge earlier this year after the court ordered him to pay $180,000 in legal fees over a secretly recorded conversation.

Hamilton police are also investigating allegations of fraud and ballot box stuffing at the meeting last May. Levitt, meanwhile, asked the party to review the nomination earlier this year.

The new nomination will be April 15. Both Singh and Levitt have said they will run again. Peller said Thursday that he'll run "only if I was acclaimed."

Samuel ran for the federal Conservatives in 2015 and came a distant second to Liberal Filomena Tassi.

A long-time Conservative volunteer, Samuel also co-ordinated campaigns for Brown and federal leader Andrew Scheer.