Liberal candidates done, Tories play D, Green platform out

Liberal candidate suggested in book that homosexuality is caused by brain damage

The Liberal candidate slate took another hit on the campaign trail Thursday, which also saw a Green party platform reveal and the PCs playing defence on the issue of MPPs drawing allowances from their riding associations.

The past has come back to sink the candidacy of three Liberal flag-bearers in as many days.

It started with a high school student and candidate in the Sault Ste. Marie riding, Aidan Kallioinen, who was associated with posts including a number of derogatory and racial slurs on social media. He told local newspaper The Sault Star that they weren't his posts, but the 18-year-old's Liberal candidacy was ended by the party.

Then came revelations about a self-published book by their Parry Sound–Muskoka candidate, Barry Stanley, suggesting homosexuality is caused by brain damage suffered by infants inhaling carbon dioxide.

A Liberal spokesperson said the candidate did not disclose the existence of his book to the party's vetting team.

On Thursday, the party cut loose a third candidate – Alec Mazurek of Chatham–Kent–Leamington – after the NDP unearthed comments he'd made on Facebook years ago using slurs for gay people and women.

While the window for candidate nominations closed at 2 p.m., Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca did share his hope Thursday that their party could still run a full slate. An update was promised for the near future.

It proved a distraction from the message the party wanted the focus on Thursday – their plan to invest an additional $3 billion in mental health and addiction services, helping train more than 3,000 new workers in the field – a third of whom would be dedicated to at-risk youth.

The PC campaign also spent some time on the defence Thursday, between announcements about the party's plan to build a new Highway 7 between Kitchener, Waterloo and Guelph, and to move the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) head office from Toronto to London, bringing jobs with it.

The controversy involved PC MPPs who've drawn allowances from their local riding associations. After it was revealed by the NDP earlier in the week that Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod received a PC riding association allowance totalling more than $44,000 over three years, Global News found that seven other PC MPPs received such allowances over the last four years.

While PC Leader Doug Ford said he's been assured that all rules were followed, according to Global reporting on Thursday, he also said he “wasn't too happy” when he learned about the allowance situation and that the party would tighten up election financing laws if re-elected.

The NDP, meanwhile, proposed to ban the practice and called for those who've drawn allowances from their local riding associations to pay them back.

It was a big day for the Green party, and its leader and sole incumbent, Mike Schreiner. He unveiled his party's costed platform Thursday morning in Toronto's University–Rosedale riding, alongside his party's deputy leaders and other Green candidates from the area.

The platform features six key priority areas, with pledges under each: “homes not highways,” including promises to build 1.5 million homes and freeze urban boundaries; “mental health is health”; “new climate economy,” which would feature an annual carbon budget to reach net-zero by 2045; “respect for people,” such as doubling the rates for ODSP; “reinvest in health and education” through a $1.6 billion investment in home care, for one; and “protect nature.”