The former Conservative MP turned Independent member for Hastings-Lennox and Addington riding is demanding the Conservative party’s leader return money previously donated to him back to the original donors.
In a press release Derek Sloan says the national Conservative Party was keeping $50,000 directly fundraised by himself and was going to use it to boost new Conservative candidate Shelby Kramp-Neuman’s campaign in the next federal election.
Sloan says it would be a new low in Canadian politics if O’Toole failed to return the money to its donors.
Sloan is currently working to start his own political party to be called “True North”.
Below is the entire press release from Sloan’s office.
(August 9, 2021) Hastings-Lennox & Addington Independent MP Derek Sloan is calling on CPC Leader Erin O’Toole to address a growing issue involving donations from local and national conservative supporters of Derek Sloan, which instead will now be used by Shelby Kramp in the upcoming election, since she has become the acclaimed candidate of choice for Mr. O’Toole.
As many have suggested, it appears Mr. O’Toole orchestrated a smear campaign against Mr. Sloan to remove him as the official CPC candidate for Hastings-Lennox & Addington. Shortly after Mr. Sloan was removed, the Hastings-Lennox & Addington Conservative Party of Canada Electoral Riding Association was threatened with being de-chartered unless they accepted dictates from CPC Headquarters in Ottawa regarding certain funding matters internal to the board, and the initiation of a new Candidate-Selection process.
However, despite Mr. O’Toole’s depiction of events which only served to smear Mr. Sloan, O’Toole never once mentioned to Canadians or voters in Hastings-Lennox & Addington that the CPC intended to keep over $50,000 that was directly fundraised by Mr. Sloan himself for the local CPC riding association and would be used in any upcoming campaign, given by donors across Canada who gave on the premise that it would aid Mr. Sloan in his re-election. This is a travesty that Mr. O’Toole and Shelby Kramp should be made to speak to.
To instead keep those donations for the Kramp campaign shows a new low in Canadian politics and proves that Mr. O’Toole’s shameful approach towards MP Sloan was never actually about principles – as he claimed several months ago. MP Derek Sloan calls for the immediate return of all related funds in the HLA CPC EDA coffers to the original donors – which he would call for to occur before the writ is dropped to kick off the next election. Failure to do so would not only show a lack of principles on behalf of Erin O’Toole but would also appear to indicate that candidate Shelby Kramp is failing to act in an ethical fashion by not recognizing the receipt of those donations in MP Sloan’s name for her campaign.
Regardless, voters of Hastings-Lennox & Addington will be made aware of these failings moving forward, should Erin O’Toole fail to act accordingly in an immediate fashion and ensure the prompt return of the donated funds in question.
