No end to gaffes in long campaign

Here is a list of candidates and party officials whose gaffes have made headlines. Aug. 7 The Conservatives showed the door to candidate Augustin Ali Kitoko in Montreal’s Hochelaga riding after he shared an album of photos from NDP Leader Tom Mulcair’s Facebook page. Aug. 10 New Democrat Morgan Wheeldon of Nova Scotia’s Kings-Hants riding, was forced to resign after saying in a 2014 Facebook post that Israel was engaged in “ethnic cleansing.” Aug. 18 Liberal Ala Buzreba dropped out of the race in Alberta’s Calgary Nose Hill riding after four-year-old tweets surfaced of her telling someone they should have been aborted with a coat hanger and another to “go blow your brains out.” She apologized. Aug. 21 Tory candidate Gilles Guibord was forced to resign from the race in Montreal’s Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie riding over sexist comments he allegedly made in the online comments section of the Journal de Montréal. Aug. 24 Conservative candidate Wiliam Moughrabi in the Montreal riding of Ahuntsic-Cartierville had to erase online comments that were deemed violent and misogynist. He did not step down. Aug. 25 Soheil Eid, a Conservative candidate in Joliette, Que., apologized for a Facebook post that drew a parallel between the words of Mulcair and comments attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister. Late August VirJiny Provost, a young Bloc Québécois candidate in Mégantic-L’Érable, embarrassed her party after a survey she answered came to light. Asked what she would need in a nuclear attack, she wrote she’d bring “her cellphone, a penis and chips.” Sept. 7 The Conservatives dropped Toronto-Danforth candidate Tim Dutaud after he was found to have posted videos of himself making crank calls on YouTube — in one, he posed as a mentally disabled man; in another, he feigned an orgasm. Sept. 7 The Conservatives cut ties with Jerry Bance, who was running in Toronto’s Scarborough Rouge Park riding, after he was caught by the CBC on camera urinating into a coffee cup while he was an appliance repairman. Sept. 8 Sue MacDonell, a board member for the Conservatives’ Bay of Quinte Electoral District Association, was fired after she posted on Facebook a Cree woman recently crowned Mrs. Universe was a monster and a “smug entitled Liberal pet.” Sept. 9 Shawn Dearn, Mulcair’s communications director, apologized after two-year-old tweets surfaced in which he used an expletive in reference to Pope Benedict. Mulcair kept Dearn on his team. Sept. 10 Christopher Brown, a Liberal candidate in Peace River-Westlock in Alberta, apologized for tweets in 2009 that used profane language and included derogatory references to women. Brown said he was an alcoholic at the time after his partner died in a car crash involving a drunk driver. Party leader Justin Trudeau accepted his apology. Sept. 10 Joy Davies, who was running for the Liberals in the B.C. riding of South SurreyWhite Rock, left the campaign after her controversial Facebook posts about marijuana and cancer came to light.