A former executive officer for a New Brunswick Progressive Conservative (PC) MLA says the party broke its own rules to ensure he wasn’t able to seek the nomination for the riding of Carleton-York.
Chris Duffie previously worked under current Carleton-York MLA Carl Urquhart but says the party has known his intentions to seek that seat in the 2018 election “for years.”
“They knew my intent for a very, very long time,” he said.
But now, the window of opportunity has closed, before he had much chance to formally declare.
In a statement, the New Brunswick PC Party indicated it was decided May 3 that they would hold their convention on May 19. Those seeking nomination must submit their name in writing “no fewer than 14 days before the convention.”
The next day, the party posted an ad in the paper as per Article 18, Section 2.1. of their constitution.
Duffie thinks the procedure was rushed to keep members like himself from challenging the incumbent.
“I didn’t see anything in the paper on Thursday because it was so well-hidden, up underneath the life section.”
Duffie takes a greater issue with another part of the party’s constitution.
Their rules state that they must contact all members directly to advise of such a call.
While the PC Party maintains they did just that, Duffie and his supporters are disputing it.
“The constitutional obligation is the Registered District Association make an effort to notify the members within their electoral district by either mail, telephone or other means,” explained PC Party interim executive director Donald Moore. “A decision was made to exceed that requirement to have a notice sent to the provincial membership via email to notify people that the nomination convention process has begun, and to keep up-to-date with the events calendar on the PC NB website.”
“I received nothing,” said PC member Elbridge Jewitt. “And as I understand, nobody else did.”
On Monday, Duffie travelled to the party office in Fredericton to hand-deliver his nomination forms but found the doors locked on arrival.
Shortly thereafter, the police were called, indicating the staff inside felt threatened and phoned them for security.
Duffie was eventually permitted entry to hand in his application solo, while accompanied by police.
“This is very confusing,” Duffie said of the incident. “We’re members — all of us were members.”
Jewitt was with Duffie during the ordeal and says it’s caused him and others like him to reconsider their political stripe.
“I’m astonished at their attitude — the whole concept of democracy has been put aside,” Jewitt said. “I’ve been a Conservative member since the ’60s, and if this doesn’t go through and this happens, I’m done with this party.”
No other names came forward from the nomination call, other than Uruqhart’s.