Five More Troubling UCP Candidates You Need To Meet

Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party is remarkable, in many ways, among them is the sheer number of bigots, bozos and sketchy characters swirling around it.

On April 4, PressProgress issued a round-up of 30 candidates for Alberta’s United Conservative Party found to seemingly-hold bigoted and hateful views.

Since then, the list has only grown.

Here’s an update:

Travis Toews — UCP Candidate for Grand Prairie-Wapiti

United Conservative Party (YouTube)

PressProgress reported Toews spent the last five-ten years serving on the board of directors of the Peace River Bible Institute in Sexsmith. 

Peace River Bible Institute

The Evangelical school explicitly bans, in its code of conduct, sorcery, witchcraft, spell casting and homosexuality.

Peace River Bible Institute

Toews did not respond to multiple requests for comment from PressProgress.

Devinder Toor — UCP candidate for Calgary-Falconridge

YellowPages, Facebook

PressProgress reported, Amandeep Panesar, a temporary foreign worker, alleged in a sworn affidavit, Toor mistreated him when he was employed at the candidate’s liquor store.

The affidavit alleged Toor withheld Panesar’s wages, pressured him into 7-day work weeks at his liquor store, kept multiple temporary foreign workers living in a dark basement and threatened him with deportation.

Toor did not respond to PressProgress’ request for comment.

Karri Flatla — UCP candidate for Lethbridge-West 

Global News reported this candidate appears to have some outdated views on mental health.

In a statement to Global News, Flatla later said “I don’t recall the context of these eight-year old tweets.“

Martin Long — UCP Candidate for West Yellowhead

Facebook

The Star Metro Calgary reported last month, a Facebook post from 2016 saw Long suggested Christians shouldn’t support a minimum wage, abortion rights or LGBT rights.

I would suggest that by virtue of voting for or even defending a government which: supports gay marriage although biblically marriage is between man and woman, endorses a minimum living wage although biblically a man who chooses not to work shall not eat, and says that if you are pro life you can not represent their party although biblically we are not supposed to murder, then one may need to self-examine to figure out if they are ‘Liberal’ or ‘Christian.’

Long clarified to The Star his views — three years on — are now consistent with those of the UCP which doesn’t support eliminating the minimum wage or LGBT marriage rights.

Jason Nixon — Candidate for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre

Twitter

In 2017, PressProgress reported Nixon’s company was fined by British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal for firing a woman who complained about workplace sexual harassment.

The 2008 ruling read his company — Nixon Safety Consulting — fired the single mother of three after she confided to Nixon a superior was “touching and propositioning her.”

According to the ruling, the respondent accused the complainant of being too “chatty, flirty and overly friendly” and claimed she wore “clothes that were too tight, to loose, too revealing or too dressy” and “saw her underwear when she bent over.”

The tribunal awarded her $32,000 in damages.

Nixon, subsequently, expressed regret. But, in 2017 he still opposed anti-harassment legislation, telling the Edmonton Journal:

It’s not enough to write stuff down and say, ‘this is wrong’ … Any time we’ve made large advancements on occupational safety, it’s been driven by industry.

More recently, allegations emerged Nixon swatted at a woman’s camera while hunting on her property, with one of the other hunters allegedly asking “d’you want to shoot that bitch?”

The UCP clarified charges were dropped, after he signed a peace bond.