Niagara councillor denied a chance to run provincially, P.C. party blaming his social media presence

He’s a city councillor, charity worker and former Olympian but the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario says he isn’t fit to represent them. Niagara Falls councillor Mike Strange says he was shut out of running for the P.C’s in next June’s provincial election because of harmless social media posts.

After four months of waiting for a response, Thursday night Strange received an email from P.C. Executive Director Bob Stanley. Who says after the examination of his social media and other information, Strange would not be permitted to stand for the party nomination.

Strange says it all began shortly after he announced his intentions to run. Soon after an unmarked envelope filled with photos of him was sent the to the P.C party offices. About two months after that anonymous package was sent, Strange received the same package.

The person who sent the package hasn’t identified themselves but in a series of text messages, party president Rick Dykstra appears to suggest both he and Strange know who was behind it. One of the texts from Dykstra reads, “we both know who is attacking u and ur character and it’s not the PC party of Ontario.”

As for Strange, he says he’ll be handing in his conservative membership.
“Unfortunately it is not gonna happen with the Conservatives, I thought our values were the same but it is not gonna happen. So there’s always the option of running for another party or running independent.”

When we reached out to Rick Dykstra he said “Mike had every opportunity to do what he could to correct the situation and did not” but declined to clarify what he meant, only saying he wouldn’t be commenting any further.