An Oxford County man who had been running to represent the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) federally for the riding of Oxford alleges his candidacy was disqualified in part due to his sexual orientation.
Jordan Kent, 24, made his allegations public in a series of Facebook posts published in early May, in which he accuses executive members with the PPC’s Oxford riding association of colluding in his dismissal.
According to Kent, he had been greenlit to run for the Oxford PPC federal nomination on April 10.
Nearly a month later, Kent learned that his federal nominee status had been revoked.
Kent told Global News Radio 980 CFPL that he was disqualified for the following reasons: “Number 1, I’m LGBT, and the second ground is that I brought forward allegations of homophobia, of election tampering and of meddling in the independence of the nomination.”
“They disqualified me as a cumulative result of the allegations and actions I had taken to try to expose this to the general public.”
Kent goes on to say that he went directly to the founder and leader of the PPC, Maxime Bernier, in a phone call on April 30.
“I said, ‘Look, the riding association has a bias against me because I’m an LGBT activist. They are working actively to try to spin this election… can you step in?’ And he said, ‘OK, I’m going to get some help getting an investigation open and I will have some answers for you by 7 p.m. tomorrow,'” Kent said.
After the 7 p.m. deadline came and went, Kent says he told Oxford PPC riding association members that he’d go public with his allegations.
“I get a call the next morning… and everyone’s saying, ‘Jordan, I just want to let you know that they’re preparing papers to disqualify you.”
On Monday, the Oxford PPC riding association posted a statement to Facebook written by association president Steve Baker.
The statement denies any bias, collusion or political interference from executive members of the riding association.
It goes on to confirm Kent’s disqualification as of May 3, adding that his allegations and actions had “contravened both a conduct pledge and a non-disclosure agreement which Mr. Kent has signed.”
Global News Radio 980 CFPL has reached out to the riding association but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.
— With files from Global News Radio 980 CFPL’s Jacquelyn Lebel
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