Calgary Herald

Replacing candidates after they self-destruct

- TRISTIN HOPPER

NDP candidate Stefan Jonasson’s fate was sealed three years ago, when he compared members of the Haredim, an ultra- Orthodox form of Judaism, to the “Taliban and other extremists.”

As soon as a 2012 Facebook post containing the comment was dredged up by an online news site Friday, the party asked for the Manitoba candidate’s resignatio­n.

“I wish that the party had had the courage and the foresight to believe that my candidacy was worth defending, but they did not,” Jonasson told Manitoba CBC.

It may be hard to remember after eight weeks of campaignin­g, but this type of thing used to be quite rare.

In 2011, it was big news when a Green Party candidate resigned over a Facebook post reading “if rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it!” The election before, only five candidates dropped out before Election Day — fewer than one resignatio­n a week.

But this election, there are more than a dozen former candidates, most of them victims of damning social media posts.

Behind the scenes, the result has been an unpreceden­ted rush by local riding associatio­ns to get replacemen­ts on the ballot before Oct. 19.

The Liberals, who have dropped candidates in Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia, dub the phenomenon of picking a replacemen­t mid-election an “electoral emergency.”

The selection process is the same as under normal conditions (nomination papers, a meeting, etc.), it just goes much faster.

Whereas riding associatio­ns usually need at least two weeks notice before a nomination meeting, in an emergency one can be called in less than 24 hours.

In the Quebec riding of Pierre-Boucher-Les Patriotes-Verchères, Liberal Francine Crevier-Bélair stepped down over financial issues.

Local Liberals then called up the second- and third-place contenders and asked if they wanted to try again.

According to a Liberal source, only the third-placed Lucie Gagnon agreed to stand.

The replacemen­t process is less well-known for the Conservati­ves, who did not comment for this story, but it appears to be remarkably efficient.

Less than four days after they dumped Jerry Bance, the contractor caught peeing into a coffee mug in a client’s house, his Scarboroug­h-Rouge River riding had found a high-quality substitute — Leslyn Lewis, a lawyer and TV host.

But amid the high emotions that can be spurred when a chosen candidate is pushed aside, the replacemen­t process is not always smooth.

Last month, Morgan Wheeldon, NDP candidate in Kings-Hants, N.S., was compelled to resign after a Conservati­ve-aligned website dug up a posting in which Wheeldon suggested Israel was guilty of ethnic cleansing.

Outraged at a “lack of due process,” nomination runner-up Stephen Schneider refused to replace him. After more than a month, the riding got winery worker Hugh Curry on the ballot.

With the federal nomination deadline coming at the end of September, replacemen­ts will soon be off the table.

In this regular feature until Election Day, writers capture a telling moment in time from the 2015 campaign trail.

 ??  ?? Stefan Jonasson
Stefan Jonasson

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