North Bay veteran City Councillor Mark King is crying foul, saying he's been turfed by the federal Conservative Party.
This comes even though he won the local nomination to run in the federal election this fall in Nipissing-Temiskaming.
Now, King is speaking out, saying democracy has been overruled. "We've been really beaten up by this process."
Mark King is out as the Conservative Party's candidate for the October federal election and to say he's not happy would be an understatement.
"This has been extremely hard for me to swallow," said King.
He says he was 'vetted' by the Tories two months ago during the nomination process, but after winning, he was later told he couldn't be the candidate.
King says it's over an accusation that he used a corporate credit card to buy a party membership.
"We have turned over every possible rock that we could possibly turn over. I want to make it perfectly clear that I did not purchase my membership with a corporate card," said King.
King believes an appeal was made at the local level to the national conservative selection committee, which overturned his nomination win.
He is now accusing members of the Conservative Party of bias, saying the party favours the other candidate, Jordy Carr, whom King beat last month in a vote.
"This is not democracy, there's no question. It appears that a couple of people have overruled democracy inside the party," said King.
When asked for a comment, Cory Hann, a representative from the party's head office in Ottawa Party had this to say in a statement:
"In the rare case a nominee may be disallowed, it is never a decision the party takes lightly. As a result, the other candidate in the nomination was made our Conservative candidate for the October election, and we're pleased to have Jordy Carr on our team. Per our standard practice, reasons for disallowing an applicant are not provided."
King says he's been in contact with other parties within the district that are currently looking for federal candidates.
As for Jordy Carr, she says she wishes Mark King the best and that she's excited to begin to campaign.
CTV News contacted Andrew Scheer's office, the Conservative Party and the local riding association, but the calls were never returned.
