Some local PC party members are asking for refund after Derek Duval was disqualified from running to be the party’s next candidate in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell.
After Duval said he had been disqualified because of a video filmed at Vankleek Hill’s Pond Rocket Tournament in 2012, his supporters expressed anger and disappointment on Facebook.
Jason Jackson, who is now the organizer of the Pond Rocket Tournament, said he would be asking for a refund of his party membership fee and encouraged others to do the same.
He says he only joined to support Duval. “Derek and I are good friends,” he told The Review. “I like to support him in whatever he does. I was very disappointed to hear only three days out from the election he got the rug pulled out from underneath him.”
Jackson said it’s not about the $10 membership fee – “it’s more to make a point,” he said. Initially, Jackson was told his membership was non-refundable. “I told (the party employee) there would be 1,200 people calling her today to ask her the same thing, and she took me a little more seriously at that point,” he said. (Duval claims he signed up 1,200 new party members.) Jackson later called back and asked to speak with the boss – he was told to contact executive director of the PC Party, Bob Stanley. Stanley agreed to refund the membership if Jackson sent him an email asking for one. Jackson said about 30 people messaged or commented on Facebook to say they had also asked for a refund.
This was his first foray into politics and Jackson says he won’t be doing it again. “I won’t have any interest going forward,” he said. While he certainly would have cast his vote for Duval, Jackson said the PC candidate, Amanda Simard, won’t get his vote in 2018. “It soured me on the whole party in general,” he said.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s the free publicity for the pond rocket tournament, said Jackson. “I’ve got to thank them for that,” he said. Duval says he was accused of filming someone eating a hamster off of a hockey stick in the 2012 video. Duval and Eddy Earwigg, who also helped make the video, say it’s a poutine, and that appears to be the case. But Jackson is embracing the controversy. “Our new official mascot of the pond rocket cup will be a hamster,” he said. “I’ve already ordered a hamster costume off of Amazon for the tournament.” The 2017 Pond Rocket Tournament will be held in Vankleek Hill on March 31 and April 1.
