Two candidates for the Progressive Conservation nomination for Flamborough-Glanbrook are calling on the party executive to hold a new nomination contest in the spirit of democracy.

But the nominated candidate for the riding, Donna Skelly, said there is no interest to re-open the nomination process.

Dan Sadler, a Mount Hope resident, sent a letter to party president Jag Badwal March 1 requesting the party hold the contest after former leader Patrick Brown refused to hold a nomination meeting last year, and instead selected Donna Skelly as the only candidate for the association. The nomination contest had been delayed for months until the party could secure Skelly’s agreement to run.

“Under former leader Patrick Brown a decision was made to strip the right of PC Party members in the riding of Flamborough-Glanbrook to choose their representative,” stated Sadler. “I am a team player and understand the concept of putting the party above the individual but I will never agree that the party should be put above democracy itself.”

Nick Lauwers, who had been campaigning for almost a year for the nomination until he was barred from running, said in a statement that there should “absolutely be a nomination.

“Donna Skelly was not chosen by the grassroots membership to be the candidate for Flamborough-Glanbrook,” said Lauwers. “Rather she was one of Patrick Brown’s hand-picked candidates.”

He said “backroom deals” were made to allow Skelly to be the only candidate for the nomination meeting, which occurred last October.

“The people’s chance to exercise their democratic right was stolen from them,” he said.

Sadler stated in his letter that he “believed” Skelly would agree to the idea of a “new” nomination meeting to allow party members to choose a person to represent them.

Both Sadler and Lauwers were told in August 2017 by party officials Brown would not sign either of their nomination papers if either won the nomination contest.