Chandra Arya’s Liberal career is crumbling fast. First, the party nixed his shot at leadership in January. Now, with an election call imminent, they’ve yanked his nomination to run again in Nepean, the Ottawa riding he’s held for a decade. Campaign director Andrew Bevan’s letter, dropped Friday, blamed “new information” vetted by the party’s gatekeepers but offered no clues—leaving Arya to post the cryptic dismissal on Facebook with a bittersweet farewell to his constituents.
The ousting clears a path in Ottawa for Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose riding choice remains a mystery as he gears up to trigger a vote—likely April 28 or May 5. Liberals have floated Edmonton, Toronto, or Ottawa as options for Carney, and Arya’s exit hands him a prime capital-city perch. For the 62-year-old Arya, it’s a bruising end to a tenure he called a “profound honour.”