Jackie Jacobson is officially appealing his loss to Kimberly Fairman in the race to become the NWT's Conservative candidate.
Jacobson, who received 67 votes to Fairman's 73, announced his appeal in a 16-page letter to the executive director of the Conservative Party of Canada, which was obtained by NNSL Media.
"The reason for this appeal is that throughout the nomination selection process, I experienced unfair and biased treatment from local representatives, national representatives, and Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) staff," his letter reads. "It is my belief that this treatment clearly broke party rules and calls into question the fairness of the entire process."
Jacobson's letter includes a host of accusations — which he claims can be corroborated by other people and verified by emails — dating back to before he officially became a candidate in the race.
He claims that, in October of 2023, he met with members of the CPC in Ottawa, during which time he was told by an influential member that he "would be the candidate" if he "completed the required paperwork and passed the party’s vetting process."
However, he claims that he quickly found the application process extremely difficult — despite being assured it would be "simple" — and began to suspect that "the party, or some faction of members within it were intentionally delaying me to try and keep me out of the race."
Jacobson ultimately managed to officially enter the race but claims that was only made possible due to the direct involvement of CPC leader Pierre Poilievre, who made some calls to ensure he was given "access" to the necessary application documents. However, he claims he continued to run into issues from there.
The next Conservative candidate for the NWT was expected to be officially announced on July 4, but news of the result came out on June 30 after Fairman sent an email to her supporters, which Jacobson claims both he and his opponent were told "specifically and unequivocally" not to do.
He alleges Fairman let the information out early because she anticipated he may appeal the result.
"Despite this clear instruction," the letter alleges, "Ms. Fairman sent an email out to the (electoral district association) membership informing them that she will be the CPC candidate in the next election.
"The only inference I can draw from Ms. Fairman’s actions is that she is attempting to get ahead of my complaint. Her and her team know it is coming because they know I was treated unfairly by party members who were under a duty to remain neutral, but actively supported her. I believe she is trying to strong arm the party into accepting her before the appeal period is over, regardless of how many rules were broken, because she thinks that the party will not refuse to nominate her after her announcement because to do so would bring embarrassment."
Jacobson's letter concludes that "Ms. Fairman should not be nominated as the candidate for the NWT Electoral District due to the unfair advantage she derived from both a biased and unfair CNC, and the inappropriate support for her campaign that she received."
Reached for comment July 5, Jacobson said he feels he would have easily beaten Fairman if was what he considered a fair race.
"I would've blown her out of the water if it was a straight up race," said Jacobson. "It's not only been a race against her, it's been a race against the district association."
Fairman could not be reached for comment by press time.