How the 'son' of a GTA is battling Carney's former advisor

MARKHAM, Ont. — Lionel Loganathan says he has probably spoken more Tamil in the past two-and-half years than he has his entire life.  Seated in his campaign office, the Conservative candidate describes how his parents’ story of immigrating  from Sri Lanka in the 1980s makes his upbringing like the thousands of others who call Markham, and more specifically the riding of Markham-Thornhill, home. “This has actually helped me connect back with my roots.” Immigrants make up more than half of Markham’s population, a city of around 350,000 outside of Toronto. It is part of the vote-rich Greater Toronto Area, which any federal party must win in order to form government.   Stories like Loganathan’s are what Poilievre is counting on to resonate with voters, as the campaign concludes its final stretch. The inroads Poilievre has tried making with immigrant and cultural communities, focusing on crime and the cost-of-living, will also be put to the test. Markham-Thornhill, where Loganathan says more than 350 languages are spoken, are among the most ethnically diverse, like ridings in Brampton, Scarborough and B.C.’s lower mainland. “When I started doing this, my board would say to me, you know, we’ve got to go to the mosque, or we got to go to the temple, or we got to go to all these places to to do outreach.” “And I was like, you know where I go to see people from the Jewish community, or people from the Muslim community or people from the Hindu community? I go to No Frills. I go to Costco.” Now a software sales executive, Loganathan was born in Canada after his parents’ arrival. Growing up, his father worked as a limousine driver, his mother in the back office of a bank. She travelled to and from downtown everyday on the 53 bus, he remembers. Loganathan also grew up as Canadian as it gets, he says,  playing street hockey and backcountry camping with friends. “I’m a son of this riding, and I always will be, and it’s a part of who I am.” In Markham, those of Chinese descent make up the largest demographic of any ethnic group, followed by South Asians. Federally, the city is divided into three ridings: Markham–Unionville, Markham—Stouffville and Markham–Thornhill. The Liberals currently hold all three.  The latter, where Loganathan is running, is where the Liberals recruited a candidate who could very well find himself in cabinet, should Liberal Leader Mark Carney win Monday.  Tim Hodgson served as special advisor to Carney during his time at the Bank of Canada. Like Carney,  Hodgson worked at Goldman Sachs. And like Carney, he has corporate business experience from both New York and London.  Hodgson was most recently chairman of Hydro One and remains on a leave of absence. He was named the Liberal candidate the day after the campaign got underway. A spokesperson for his campaign declined an interview with National Post, citing Hodgson’s “over committed schedule.” Their response suggests they feel confident. “We would be happy to discuss this again after the election though.” Polling aggregator 338canada.com suggests the Liberal seat to be safe.  Hodgson is running in a riding last held by former cabinet minster Mary Ng, who announced back in February she was not seeking reelection. Ng, as well as other former Toronto-area minsters, such as Gary Anandasangaree, who is himself Tamil, Anita Anand and Bill Blair have campaigned for him, as have incumbents like Ali Ehsassi and Maninder Sidhu. Hodgson is running on the same issue all Liberals are: Mounting a defence to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and his comments about annexing Canada. Donning a Canadian hockey jersey, Hodgson calls Trump’s actions “economic war” in a video recently posted to social media and says that his candidacy reflects his sense of duty, not ambition.  He highlights the riding’s diversity as part of the Canadian story, and calls himself both a “centrist” and “pragmatist.” It’s a pitch Carney himself made when he first declared he was running for Liberal leadership, successfully replacing former prime minister Justin Trudeau — part of a series of events that led to a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the Liberals. Watching that swing has been Loganathan himself. Like other Conservatives candidates, his chances of capturing the riding increased as Trudeau weighed down the Liberals.  Now things have changed. Loganathan, who became the nominated candidate in February 2024, estimates his team having knocked on more than 60,000 doors.  He says he has not seen a shift in his percentage of support. Loganathan is also honest and acknowledges that, “maybe there’s a few more folks that are telling us they’re undecided.”  “And look,” he says. “I don’t blame them. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world, but we have not seen our supporter rates shift.” Like other Conservatives, he says core issues like crime and housing have not disappeared. Trump’s comments have served as a “distraction,” he adds. In terms of support, Loganathan says he’s had more than 3,000 lawn signs requests and has gone to the printer three times now, but will not be able to meet demand. That is a massive improvement from previous Conservative candidates who ran, due in part to Loganathan’s efforts to build up the party’s presence in the riding, which historically finishes a distant second to the Liberals.  Lawn sign requests and rally sizes have been something Conservatives have pointed to throughout the campaign as proof the party is onto something. Meanwhile, successive public opinion polls suggest the 20-point lead Poilievre enjoyed for the past 18-months has collapsed into a near dead-heat with the Liberals, or shows them to be trailing. Loganathan says polls do come up at the doors. As does Poilievre himself.  “People are just curious about, who is he, what’s he like, how’s he going to be.” Having worked as a riding captain for Poilievre’s successful 2022 Conservative party leadership bid, Loganathan shares how he has come to know the leader.  “I tell them that he’s a very thoughtful man. He’s somebody that cares deeply about Canada. He’s somebody that, you know, cares deeply about his family, and that he is more like us in this riding than any of the other options are.” Poilievre will be hoping his personal story of having been adopted and raised in an average Canadian family resonates over the image his critics paint of him, and that many voters already see, which is a likeness to Trump. Loganathan says he tells voters who are curious that Poilievre is blunt. He also tells them Poilievre deserves a shot, pointing to his effectiveness as Opposition leader, having s ingle-handily “shifted the entire country’s perception on the carbon tax to his vision.”  “He’s earned a chance at government and that’s what I tell people.” National Post. staylor@postmedia.com Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.