Ontario PC Party President Rick Dykstra no stranger to controversy
Posted January 25, 2018 3:46 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The man who will play a key role in helping the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party pick an interim leader is no stranger to controversy himself.
PC Party President Rick Dykstra said on Thursday he’s asked MPPs to pick a temporary leader in light of Patrick Brown’s resignation amid sexual misconduct allegations. A leadership election would follow to name a permanent replacement.
In 2015, Dykstra found himself embroiled in controversy after a BuzzFeed article accused him of buying alcohol for underage girls at a St. Catharines nightclub.
“Two separate underage girls also tweeted about him buying them alcohol that night,” the BuzzFeed article stated.
In a subsequent statement to CityNews, Dykstra denied he bought alcohol for the girls, whether individually or as part of his group’s bottle service.
“Mr. Dykstra did not purchase drinks for any of the individuals in question, nor did he see them consume any alcohol from the bottles he purchased,” the statement read.
He said he was in the bar with “members of his campaign team and his family.”
The statement went on to say that as they were “in a licensed establishment, where patrons are required to be 19 or older,” as well as Ontario’s “rigorous” ID requirements, Dykstra “had no reason to believe anyone in the establishment was underage.”
In a separate allegation in the same BuzzFeed article, one of the girls said she was offered a “bribe” by an alcohol representative who is also a Dykstra supporter. BuzzFeed claimed the girl was offered VIP service at the bar if she stopped tweeting about the night.
CityNews was not able to independently verify any of the allegations.
The allegations didn’t deter Dykstra’s political ambitions. Just months after losing his seat to a Liberal candidate, he announced he would run for the Ontario PC Party presidency, winning the title in March 2016.
