Veteran Miramichi Conservative says MP Jake Stewart can't win
Two-time candidate Mike Morrison says the local party organization he helped build has been ‘decimated’
A two-time federal Conservative candidate in Miramichi says he doesn't think current party MP Jake Stewart can win again in a federal election that is expected to start within weeks.
Mike Morrison says he has contacted the office of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to advise them of what's happening but has had no response.
"I don't think he should be the candidate," Morrison said.
Morrison said the party organization he helped build has "tanked" because Stewart has alienated or cut ties with many Conservative supporters, including many of his own staff and volunteers who helped elect him.
The 79-year-old veteran political organizer and two-time candidate says Stewart is hiding from constituents and onetime allies, leading many to conclude not only that he'll lose the seat but that he should resign.
"Everything's gone downhill," Morrison said in an interview at his home. "It's gone right off the end. There's no credibility. It's very toxic. … Nobody can get any answers."
Morrison's son Shawn is one of several people who were fired from or quit Stewart's office.
In January, a House of Commons lawyer sent Shawn Morrison a cease-and-desist letter, telling him to stop contacting Stewart's wife and his office.
"People [are] coming up to me saying, 'They're trying to blame everything on the Morrisons,'" Mike Morrison said. "We did nothing.
"What's happened here right now has been created by Jake Stewart himself."
Stewart has not responded to repeated requests from CBC News for an interview.
The financial agent for the Miramichi-Grand Lake Conservative riding association, Denver Brennan, resigned in January citing a "toxic and manipulative atmosphere" in Stewart's office.
He named eight people who left jobs in the office or were fired over three years.
Morrison confirmed some of the departures and said they often had to do with Stewart's temper.
"These kids … were having mental distress there with what was happening," he said. "Make one mistake in a letter or something like that — it was the end of the world."
The result now is a local board and party organization he calls "non-functional," while former campaign donors will no longer support Stewart.
"We're in a mess today," Morrison said, "and here we've got an election coming."
Two spokespeople for Poilievre have not responded to questions from CBC News about the situation.
Morrison said he asked Kevin Price, New Brunswick's representative on the Conservative Party's national council, to take his concerns to Poilievre adviser Jenni Byrne.
Price "knows where we're coming from," Morrison said. "He understands what's happening here."
So far though, no one from Poilievre's office has contacted him.
Price did not respond to an interview request.
It's a sad development for Morrison, who helped build the local Conservative Party of Canada organization in Miramichi after the 2003 merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties.
He was the first candidate for the party in Miramichi, running in both 2004 and 2006.
He worked on the 2008 campaign that led to the party's breakthrough win with Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, who went on to serve two terms in Ottawa.
More recently, he was the financial agent for Stewart's 2021 campaign and helped organize an early visit to the riding by Pierre Poilievre after he became party leader, an event attended by almost 400 people.
Poilievre "couldn't get over the organization," Morrison said. "He fell in love with Miramichi."
He believed Stewart was in line for a possible cabinet position in a Poilievre government, representing a chance to get some federal attention for Miramichi.
But "something turned," Morrison said. "Jake become another person."
He pointed to text messages from Stewart linking to music videos by the band the Strokes — apparently mocking the fact Morrison suffered a stroke in December.
"I kind of felt belittled, betrayed."
But, he added, "what hurts me the most about it all is the volunteers, the donors, all the people like ourselves, board people over the years that worked to get us to where we were, OK — how that has been decimated."
"I feel sorry for them. They put their trust in Jake Stewart. I put my trust in Jake Stewart."
Morrison said he was speaking to CBC News because no one else was acknowledging the problem.
"At least somebody is listening. The party doesn't want to listen. The national party doesn't want to listen. People have a right to know what's going on."
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