The Ontario PCs’ star candidate for an upcoming Milton byelection previously vied for a federal Liberal nomination and met with Justin Trudeau, True North has learned.
Zeeshan Hamid’s past affiliations and contributions to the Ontario Liberal Party have sparked controversy and raised questions about his political allegiance, especially as Hamid has yet to address them head-on.
Hamid’s connections to the federal and provincial Liberals date back several years. Not only did he donate to the Ontario Liberals, as reported first by True North, but he sought the federal Liberal nomination in 2014 and was notably photographed alongside Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on multiple occasions.
During his nomination announcement in 2014, Hamid criticized the Harper Conservatives, stating that their governance style was ill-suited for a parliamentary democracy.
“I want to make sure all politics end up becoming local again,” Hamid told Inside Halton at the time.
“We have this top down government this time that isn’t right for a parliamentary democracy. “
Moreover, Hamid’s involvement with the Liberals extends beyond mere financial support. When he ran for Milton mayor in 2022, he received an endorsement from Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden.
Hamid also attended a provincial Liberal event alongside former Liberal MP John McCallum in 2016.
Additionally, Hamid served as a delegate for former Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca in his 2020 leadership race, as reported by QP Briefing.
Public records revealed that Hamid has contributed $3,406 to the Ontario Liberal Party since 2020, including $950 to Del Duca’s leadership campaign in 2020. This support continued with a further contribution to the same association in 2022.
True North reached out to Hamid to allow him to clarify his past political affiliations and what his views are on the Ontario PCs but was told that he was too busy to respond.
Hamid also had a past X (formerly Twitter) handle that no longer exists. When asked what happened to the account, he told True North he renamed his account to align with his other online handles.
“I then created a new @votezee account to make sure nobody else uses that to impersonate me. In the past I also went by @zeehamid4 (same story there). You can tell by looking at the age of the account,” said Hamid.
