The United Conservative Party (UCP) says they disqualified UCP Drumheller – Stettler candidate Todd Pawsey as a candidate for making jokes about transgender people, making extremely sexual/sexist comments and calling Premier Rachel Notely a queen beyotch.
According to UCP Executive Director Janice Harrington on Saturday, “The Nominations Committee’s decision to disqualify Mr. Pawsey was based on a lengthy history of questionable social media comments that he did not disclose (as required) in his contestant application.”
Harrington said Pawsey’s sexual/sexist comments included referring to a woman as “here’s a Honda for you to ride,” and when referring to a reality show contestant said “she looked like the drama bitch the network could have used for ratings,” and referred to a woman as “dumber than a box of hair.”
Harrington said that Pawsey did appeal to the Nominations Committee but the committee unanimously decided not to hear the appeal.
“Leader Jason Kenney has repeatedly pledged a rigorous pre-screening of prospective candidates to ‘avoid the kind of ‘bozo eruptions’ that have derailed campaigns in the past and could again in the future,” said Harrington.
She added that the UCP party has developed a screening process for all applications including completing an extensive questionnaire, disclosing of all their published or online comments, police and credit checks, interviews with local Candidate Nomination Committees and research conducted on behalf of the party into each candidate.
Pawsey posted on his Facebook page that the comments were made on 2013 on Facebook.
Pawsey said it was “two shared links/memes, one about a bull who decided one morning he identified as a cow and the comment was about farm common sense and NDP social engineering. A post about the season opener of The Bachelor and about American reality TV where 24 gals are vying for one guy who was making out with the other 23 and the drama that creates. And a shared video blog of an intellectually challenged gal (easy on the eyes) that the comment made about celebrity and Internet status doesn’t make you an expert.”
In addition, Pawsey made a long post on his Facebook saying, “I must regretfully inform you that the UCP Head Office has disqualified my candidacy in the 11th hour.. the day before polls were to open.”
Pawsey went on to say that earlier this week another campaign’s team made “below the belt” personal attacks against him. He added that, “further complaints were lodged” from “inappropriate Facebook posts.”
The other two UCP candidates include Nate Horner and current MLA Rick Strankman.
Voting was on Sept. 27 in Provost and Coronation, on Sept. 28 in Stettler and Drumheller, and on Sept 29 in Oyen and Hanna.
