Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Daily Herald
The People’s Part of Canada has revoked the candidacy of Cody Kuntz and replaced him with Melfort resident John McCrea.
Kuntz first talked to the Herald on Friday, August 20, the same day he filed his candidacy papers but was removed later that day, notified by email.
“It’s good and bad at the same time,” Kuntz said on Tuesday, Aug. 24. “It’s really unfortunate because I definitely thought the PPC was what they stood for, but I found out pretty fast that they’re not exactly what they stand for.”
“The freedom of speech—they actually kicked me (out) because they said I was bringing too much negative attention, because I say very inappropriate things on the live streams that I do,” he elaborated.
Kuntz said his live streams have a lot of views from people under 18 and he has not had any comments about being inappropriate before.
“I have kids that watch me and 95 per cent are kids. If I ever said anything inappropriate, I would have someone telling me about that,” he said.
He also said he found out in a subsequent email that the party was saying he has been criminally charged with theft and that he and his team are stealing from the party, something he says is not the case.
“It makes zero sense because we didn’t have any access to the party funds,” Kuntz said. “What we had was donations from a bank account that we had to make, everything was documented and we didn’t even spend any of the money yet. There’s no way we could have stolen anything.”
“It was very shocking to find that out about the PPC,” he said. “They asked me to join. They asked me and then they kicked me. They’re not what they value their beliefs to be which is upsetting.”
He said he is still interested in politics and will likely run again, just not as part of the PPC.
“I one-hundred percent will run again,” he said. “There is the Maverick Party but I haven’t really looked into that.”
Kuntz said he likes that they are based in Western Canada.
The PPC confirmed that Kuntz is not their candidate anymore and was removed late in the day on August 20 but did not reply to a request for any information on why prior to publishing.
