Joel Etienne is demanding an appeal to the Conservative party’s decision to disqualify him from the leadership race, saying the party accepted the money he raised but left him off the ballot.
In a nine-page letter obtained by Global News, Etienne’s campaign accused Conservative party brass of “disenfranchising” the party members who supported his campaign, suggesting it amounted to “corruption of democracy at its core.”
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Etienne’s campaign claims that all the donations made to his campaign, totaling almost $360,000, was processed by the party on April 29, the deadline for campaigns to submit their compliance and registration fees.
“What the Etienne campaign knows for a fact is that every donation, except for one, was processed on Friday April 29th … bringing the campaign well over the required threshold,” reads the statement, sent to Global News by a source close to Etienne.
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“The critical opportunity for the campaign and candidacy to become known to the greater party membership was these next two months before the summer. The party (executives) have put a stop to that!”
Contacted by Global News Tuesday, Etienne said his campaign “has no comments to the media at this time other than to say that the matter is now under appeal with the party, (and is) hoping that the party will act in good faith.”
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Questions to the Conservative party’s executive director, Wayne Benson, were not returned Tuesday.
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