OTTAWA - Conservative MP Chuck Cadman, who entered politics to reform the justice system after his son's murder, said yesterday he expects to lose his party's nomination to a neophyte.

Jasbir Cheema, [who joined the CPC in January, 2004] a film producer and broadcaster, has in six weeks signed up 1,500 members in the B.C. riding of Surrey North -- or roughly five times the number of members loyal to Mr. Cadman.

Both men acknowledge the result of the nomination meeting, which hasn't been scheduled, appears a foregone conclusion.

Mr. Cadman said he fears he is a victim to the recruitment of "instant" party members, the vast majority of them Indo-Canadian.

"I've talked to NDP, to backbench Liberals and they've all seen the same phenomenon going on, and everybody's extremely concerned about people joining up, having to be members for two or three weeks before a nomination, which effectively determines who the candidate is going to be," said Mr. Cadman, 56.

[. . . .] Mr. Cadman became one of Canada's leading voices for victims' rights in the 1990s [after his son's death] and has campaigned for tougher youth justice laws.

Mr. Cheema, 45, immigrated from India to Canada in 1982 and until recently, lived in Vancouver before moving to Delta, B.C., in November. He said he'd never been a member of a political party before he joined the Conservatives in early January.

He said every single member he signed up is prepared to sign an affidavit saying they joined on their own free will and paid the $10. Mr. Cheema's campaign spokesman, Kareem Allam, said the campaign was run cleanly and all members had to pay their own way.

[. . . .] Riding president Ken Caley said Cadman supporters telephoned 143 new Conservatives on the membership list, of which 43 said they weren't members, three said they didn't know, and two said they were members, but weren't sure to which party they belonged .

Four of the phone numbers on the list were out of service and two were long-distance numbers, according to Mr. Caley, a Cadman backer.