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Controversy Swirls Around the Disqualification of a Local Candidate for the People's Party of Canada

Jordan Kent was seeking the nomination for the People's Party of Canada in Oxford County before he was disqualified on Friday, he claims it is because he is an LGBTQ activist.

OXFORD COUNTY - The People's Party of Canada has disqualified a candidate seeking the nomination in Oxford County. 

Jordan Kent received the notification on Friday night after he had made allegations about the conduct of the local People's Party Association and their President. Kent says the party has a set of principles they set out when they were founded. 

"Those principles are fairness, respect, personal responsibility and freedom and I feel they have violated that by disqualifying me based on me being an LGBTQ activist. This is completely unfair for a party that is supposed to be Libertarian based and supposed to stand up for the freedoms of all Canadians. When my platform on social issues was in line and congruent with the party, it is absolutely shameful that this is their bias against me and they actively used it to try to get me disqualified, especially when they have signed oaths of neutrality and they are not supposed to be taking sides in this one way or the other." 

Kent himself is an openly gay man. 

He provided screen shots to Heart FM which quote the President of the local PPC Steve Baker which support some of his claims. The messages were sent through a group chat of the People's Party of Canada Oxford County Electoral District Board of Directors. Those messages show Steve Baker saying the following;

"I believe Jordan to be a petulant narcissistic LGBTQ activist, and that it is his sole purpose in seeking the nomination." In another screen shot, Baker says "That being said, I have an obvious bias against this contestant. In an email to Johanne last night, and again in a phone call this morning, I asked why Jordan has not been asked to resign."

Further to this, he has also said in the same conversation: 

"A few questions aside, Wendy (Martin) is our only chance to defeat Jordan. It all comes down to how many people can be signed up to support Wendy before May 15 23:59 and will show up on May 25 to vote. Directors cannot be seen to be supporting Wendy (or Jordan). I'll leave it at that for now." 

The EDA Board of Directors for the PPC have sworn an oath of neutrality and are not supposed to show any bias to any candidate. Kent does have a history of being active in politics in Oxford County. He was previously a supporter of the NDP and actually worked as a volunteer on Tara King's campaign for the NDP during the previous municipal election. He also ran to sit on council for Blandford-Blenheim Township and lost a close race in October. 

The official statement from the People's Party of Canada Oxford County Electoral District states the following: 

"The Oxford PPC Association would like to inform its members that on May 3, 2019, the official nomination contestant status of Mr. Jordan Kent was revoked. This followed a series of allegations and actions by Mr. Kent which contravened both a conduct pledge and a non-disclosure agreement which Mr. Kent has signed.

Mr. Kent has continued to violate the conduct pledge and non-disclosure agreement by making available on various social media sites confidential internal communications obtained from Oxford-PPC Association discussion groups, although without the context of these discussions provided.

Despite any opinions expressed or apparent or alleged bias on the part of any executive member, a fair and transparent selection process was consistently emphasized. At no time and in no way was Mr. Kent's ability to campaign for the candidacy restricted or impeded, and no assistance or advice was given to other contestants without also being provided to Mr. Kent.

The Oxford-PPC Association is continuing with our candidate selection process, including a contestant debate night and the final candidate selection meeting, where all members will have the opportunity to vote for a candidate to represent them in the next federal election.

Thank you to our Oxford PPC members and our other community friends for your continued support."

Kent has posted messages on his Jordan Kent for Oxford Facebook page, however the screen shots from Steve Baker that were quoted in this article have not been made public until now. 

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