Arif Jinha won the NDP nomination for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, an Ontario riding currently held by Conservative MP Scott Reid.

This past November, Aruif Jinha quit.  There was no announcement by the NDP.  There was no explanation from the NDP.  Indeed, Wikipedia as of today still listed Arif Jinha as the candidate for the next election (I have since corrected that). 

So what happened?

As it turns out, Arif Jinha ran a blog like another disgruntled ex-NDP candidate, Francis Chartrand.  Where Francis Chartrand's blog has been heavily edited, Arif Jinha's blog has been completely erased.  However, the final post was indexed in full by Google and makes for interesting reading.  Arif Jinha was not impressed with the way he was treated by Jack Layton.  Since the blog has been erased, I will repost Arif Jinha' final entry in its entirety:

Candidate Resignation

I regret to inform supporters and residents in LFL&A of my decision to step down as federal candidate for the NDP.

I could write a ten-page letter of how much it meant to me to be given the opportunity to run. Rest assured I did not take it for granted. I always saw it as an honour and a privilege to participate. I learned much about LFL&A. It will never be who I am to look at life and politics from one perspective in ideology, time or place. Social democracy is my political home. Carleton Place, Ottawa, LFL&A are the places I call home. This is where I look outward from. It's strength is my strength and success and happiness of the people here means the world to me. I'm grateful to NDP's local riding association for the opportunity.

Those who know me will understand that it is in my nature to be active in shaping any organization I'm part of. There were many things since being a part of the NDP that I wanted to change. And there was one key issue, on advocacy for someone who has been the victim of our own government's hypocrisy and lack of humanity (see www.justice4sachabond.org) where I needed to give voice as a matter of principle and conscience. I saw it as an urgent matter of federal significance that begged for the heart and courage of opposition.

My experience met with disappointment, and perhaps I can say two things about that. I took the Sacha Bond issue to heart and that perhaps made my expectations higher than I might have judged soberly. The NDP is involved though it seems a matter of dragging them to the place they need to be. That friction has been hard to take. I honestly hope that they have taken it to heart and understand why it is a matter of conscience. I will continue to encourage and work with the caucus on this wherever it contributes to justice.

It has largely been the communication process that has been entirely dissatisfying for me. A multitude of letters on this issue and on others have gone unanswered. Suggestions and ideas go ignored. Requests for candidate support are filtered into a neverland and never addressed. No attention is given to this riding by the party, despite significant issues that ought to garner the attention of a party dedicated to social justice. Virtually all communication to me as a candidate has been unsolicited advertising and message packages to campaign on. A Jack Layton BBQ apron I never asked for, recorded telemarketing, the message box. What this tells me is that a candidate in an insignificant riding, I'm merely an advertising rep for Jack Layton. Communication is one-way and top-down. It just doesn't seem to run the other way.

I urge NDP supporters to address this discord between democratic values and politics. Voters of all stripes have to address where their political stakes stand today. In the end, we can blame parties and politicians and government all we want, but it comes back to our responsibility to shape it. You and I.

That's an examination I will take with me, I will not be leaving this to become an armchair critic. One of my goals will be to break the complacency of the public. It's a complacency where we get what we asked for, we vote for those who keep their message short, parisan [sic] and manipulative. We rarely ask for any depth. We expect parties to behave like disordered personalities, never able to see their own faults and hyper-critical of others. Political discussion centres more around who will do what to maneouvre [sic] into more power than what it takes to actually achieve something in Canada. We are responsible for this as a society.

Another goal will be to shake politics out of its habits and patterns, and get it back to authenticity. Politicians and parties are part of society and as much to blame.

Let's demand authentic politics, let's care enough about each other and the planet to put these first, and see our parties and positions of power as servants to the people. Let's wake up, and earn a Canada we can be truly proud of in every way.

Thank you,

Arif

Wow.  Yeah, I wouldn't want that letter floating around if I was Jack Layton.

But then I'm not Jack Layton.

Nor has Jack Layton sent me a Jack Layton BBQ apron.  I wonder if I can get one on eBay?  Maybe Arif Jinha will be selling his there soon.

It's not like Arif Jinha is a big fan of Jack Layton that he'll be holding on to his apron as a memento.

Maybe Arif Jinha is a bit too sensitive soul for the rough and tumble game of federal politics.  But I do find it interesting that things were allowed to go so far that the NDP ended up losing a nominated candidate, with an election potentially coming within weeks.  To compound the problem, Arif Jinha was allowed to quit in a huff. 

The people running the Ontario wing of the party let this one get away from them.  No doubt about it -- they dropped the ball.  As a result, Jack Layton is severely criticized, suffering an attack on the his style of leadership.  An NDP candidate is allowed to suggest that the NDP is a party of token candidates expected to sing the praises of the Great Leader, a party where an apron substitutes for respect. 

Then the criticism is erased, and no mention is made of the problem.  It almost worked too.

Update: I apologize for the picture.  I thought I had the right photo of Arif Jinha (two different sites seem to associate two different photos of the same person with that name).  I'm confident I have the correct image now.

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