Conservative leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis sues former campaign manager, alleges he deliberately badmouthed her

OTTAWA - Conservative leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis is accusing a former campaign manager of misappropriating resources, deliberately badmouthing her and using her 2020 leadership run to further his own interests, rather than hers.

The allegations are contained in a statement of defence and counterclaim filed by Lewis in response to a lawsuit veteran Conservative campaigner John Mykytyshyn filed last month over her alleged failure to pay his bills. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

Lewis alleges it is Mykytyshyn who owes her money because he was overpaid, and that he acted in bad faith throughout his short tenure on her 2020 campaign team.

She alleges he used political events to promote his own political consultancy rather than her campaign, and on his way out of the door purposely destroyed campaign materials, which set her campaign back weeks.

He also publicly disparaged her campaign, claiming she would not succeed, her counterclaim states.

Mykytyshyn's actions were deliberate, malicious (and) meant to harm the Lewis campaign," the claim alleges.

She's also denying all of his allegations, accusing him of only filing his lawsuit to torpedo her current leadership bid, which she launched last month.

Lewis entered the 2020 contest with a relatively low national profile, and in his lawsuit, Mykytyshyn said it was his reputation and contacts that helped spur momentum for her campaign.

But in court documents filed last week, Lewis said it was through her own network of pro-life and faith contacts" that she managed to get together the funds and signatures required to run.

Mykytyshyn, she alleges in the documents, didn't do the work he was supposed to do to promote and organize her campaign, including refusing media interviews, failing to maintain volunteer and campaign databases, and failing to submit necessary information to the party, among other things.

Mykytyshyn redirected time and resources that ought to have been devoted to the Lewis campaign to his own self-promotion and self-interest," the court file alleges. It was evident from his distain (sic) for Dr. Lewis and his dismissive approach to the Lewis campaign, that he had no expectation that she would succeed."

While she didn't win, Lewis finished in a strong third-place position, raising more than $2 million and at one point having more votes than the other two front-runners combined.

She launched her campaign for this contest building on that momentum, and was the first of the nine candidates registered to run to get her name on the ballot.

Running her campaign this time is another veteran organizer, Steve Outhouse, who Lewis had hired before parting ways with Mykytyshyn in 2020.

Mykytyshyn alleges in his lawsuit that he was brought on in January 2020 for a fee of $15,000 a month for the whole campaign, and while he never signed a formal contract, was given wide-ranging" power to run the Lewis campaign before being terminated suddenly and without any prior warning" by email on March 13.

His lawsuit seeks payments for the balance of the months of the race.

But Lewis' court filings claim it was never agreed upon that her campaign would pay him for the entire race, because at that point no one knew how long it would run, nor if Lewis would actually qualify to enter.

Her court documents say the two sides formally parted ways on March 14, after an insurmountable breakdown in communications."

Lewis's court filings allege Mykytyshyn treated Lewis in a manner so condescending as to suggest that she was working for Mykytyshyn."

Lewis also said in her court filing that Mykytyshyn allegedly proposed illegalities as the way things were done in campaigns'" and her campaign refused to agree.

The court documents do not specify what those illegalities were.

When reached by the Star, Mykytyshyn said he had yet to review Lewis' claim so he had no comment.

Lewis' campaign also had no comment.

Lewis is seeking damages in the amount of $15,000 for overpayment of Mykytyshyn's bills - she argues he was paid for the full month of March 2020 when he never did any work.

She is also seeking $100,000 for damages arising from breach of contract and bad faith.

Stephanie Levitz is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @StephanieLevitz