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We have all seen what Liberals fighting with Liberals can do

Ontario campaign co-chair David MacNaughton said barring Innes is intended to send a message to all Liberals.

“We’re not going to go back to the days of the Hatfields and McCoys in the Liberal party.”

MacNaughton informed Innes of the decision early Thursday morning, outlining the accusations against her campaign team.

“Derogatory remarks were made to several young, enthusiastic Liberals about one of our leading MPs. Suggestions were made to volunteers that their future in the Liberal party would be in jeopardy if they were on the ’wrong side’ in a nomination battle,” he said in an email to Innes.

“We have all seen what Liberals fighting with Liberals can do, not only to the electoral chances of our party but to its soul. Our leader has made it clear that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable to him, nor to the thousands of people who have embraced the new way of doing politics under Justin Trudeau’s leadership.”

Innes called the allegations against her “totally baseless and without merit,” and said the Liberal Party had not raised the issue with her.

“I am now incredibly saddened that those same people have now not only manufactured allegations of apparent ‘intimidation and bullying on young volunteers’ by my team, but made them public,” she said.

MacNaughton acknowledged he’s seen no evidence that Innes personally has been involved.

“We all know where this comes from and it’s not inconsistent with previous behaviour,” he said, alluding to Ianno, who was a key organizer of the caucus revolt against former prime minister Jean Chretien.