Win or lose, NES has already won the storyline

And flood the Order Paper

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NATE FLIPS THE SCRIPT

Auditor General SHELLEY SPENCE dropped a series of damning reports on how the government is handling (or not) AI, truck driver licensing, special ed and more, while Premier DOUG FORD is again pumping up Toronto as HQ for the defence bank. But first: NATE ERSKINE-SMITH has formally appealed the Liberal nomination results in Scarborough Southwest, and it’s a doozy.

BETWEEN THE LINES — Erskine-Smith’s appeal is almost certainly a long shot — and that may be the point.

Party veterans are already whispering about the fact that no nomination challenge has ever succeeded in the history of the Ontario Liberal Party.

But, no matter what happens, Erskine-Smith’s appeal reframes the story from “sore loser contests close race” into something more existential: putting the party itself on trial — especially ahead of a high-stakes leadership race in which he can paint himself as the principled guy trying to clean house.

Indeed