Maclean’s investigation: Inside the explosive Conservative Party fight over Rick Dykstra

By Stephen Maher, Maclean's

During the 2015 election campaign, Stephen Harper’s top aides exchanged tense emails about sexual assault allegations against MP Rick Dykstra, documents obtained by Maclean’s reveal.

Dykstra was allowed to remain as a candidate over the objections of campaign manager Jenni Byrne, who angrily referred in an email to the sexual assault allegation against him.

Dykstra, the MP for St. Catharines, lost the election and went on to become president of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Last week he resigned from that position after Maclean’s asked him to comment on the sex assault allegations. He says that he “categorically denies” the allegations, which have not been proven in court.

On Friday, his lawyers—John Kingman Phillips and Chris Murphy—reiterated that denial in a statement.

“The anonymous allegations against Mr. Dykstra, which were reported by Maclean’s earlier this week, are false. We are not going to respond to anonymous allegations.”

The email exchanges between Harper’s top aides took place Sept. 6-8, at a difficult time for the Harper campaign. Harper had just sent campaign manager Jenni Byrne back to Ottawa, apparently angered by difficulties with the campaign being knocked off message by disclosures about candidates.

To continue reading the full story, head to Macleans.ca


Related stories:

Ontario PC Party President Rick Dykstra no stranger to controversy
Maclean’s: Dykstra resignation related to 2014 sexual assault accusation


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