Ukrainian Canadian Liberals Back Kennedy

By Olena Wawryshyn

A group of Ukrainian Canadian Federal Liberal Party members have declared their support for leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy.

The group is calling on Liberals across the country to support Kennedy by voting for pro-Kennedy delegates at the delegate-election meetings (DEMs) that are being held on the last weekend of September.

“Today, the Liberal Party of Canada is in the process of renewal and is searching for a new leader, and potentially a new Prime Minister,” said  Etobicoke-Centre MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj in a statement to Edmonton’s Ukrainian News.

 This past April, Wrzesnewskyj was among a group of young MPs who announced their support for Kennedy.

 Kennedy, a former Ontario Education Minister, was born in Manitoba to a family of Scottish and Ukrainian ancestry.

 “While all leadership campaigns are important political events, this one is especially important to the Ukrainian Canadian community,” said Wrzesnewskyj.  “Among the candidates, you have Gerard Kennedy who has demonstrated sensitivity and respect for the Ukrainian Canadian community. On the other hand, there’s a candidate who has written the exact opposite,” he added.

Along with Kennedy, other front-running leadership candidates are former provincial NDP leader Bob Rae and academic Michael Ignatieff, who expressed negative views about Ukrainian independence in his book Blood and Belonging. 

Ignatieff’s acclamation last year as the federal candidate in the riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore sparked an uproar after the nomination forms of two local candidates, Marc Shwec and Ron Chyczij, were rejected by the Liberal Party.

Among the community leaders who are backing Kennedy is the Shevchenko Foundation’s President Andrew Hladyshevsky.  “His [Kennedy’s] vision restores a community sense of responsibility for one another, which is the fundamental thread of the historical tradition of the Ukrainian community in Canada,” says Hladyshevsky.  “It would be wonderful for that set of values to become part of the mainstream of Canadian life,” he added.

Members of the Federal Liberal Party are eligible to vote for delegates at the DEMs, which are taking place between September 29 and October 1. In the Greater Toronto Area, the DEMs are on October 1.

The elected delegates will go on to vote at the Liberal leadership convention being held on December 2 to 3 in Montreal.

–With files from Marco Levytsky, Ukrainian News.