Candidates feel heat from social media posts

NDP contenders apologize for old Facebook statements

OTTAWA— Ethan Rabidoux, a former Conservative now running for the New Democrats in southern Ontario, has apologized to anyone insulted by a social media history that includes vulgar comments about former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

“My world view has changed dramatically in recent years,” Rabidoux, the NDP candidate in Perth-Wellington, wrote on his official Facebook page Tuesday afternoon.

It was another day and another candidate caught having said something controversial on social media after the True North Times website unearthed comments Rabidoux made years ago.

“Sarah Palin: VPILF,” the website showed Rabidoux wrote on Facebook in a post dated Aug. 31, 2008, playing on the term “MILF,” which stands for “Mom I’d Like to F---.”

Another Facebook post threatened violence against those who dared to broach what is a popular topic in the party being led by Thomas Mulcair, a former environment minister for Quebec.

“The next person to talk to me about global warming is getting 50 punches to the head,” Rabidoux said in a post dated May 22, 2008, according to the website.

Rabidoux did not respond to a telephone message left with his campaign Tuesday morning, but posted his mea culpa on Facebook with an explanation for his absence.

“These 7-year-old statements do not reflect my current beliefs. For anyone that took offence to these inappropriate comments, I offer my sincere apology. It’s unfortunate timing. I have been battling the stomach flu. I’ll be back on the campaign trail when I am feeling better,” Rabidoux wrote.

Also on Tuesday, Noah Richler, the NDP candidate in the downtown riding of Toronto—St. Paul’s, apologized for an online comment last year criticizing Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence for complaining that her private nude photographs had been stolen and circulated online.

“I don’t give a toss beyond finding it more than a wee bit ironic that a woman whose image has been so blatantly manipulated by the magazine for their mutual financial advantage protests of her leaked nude photos that ‘it’s my body, and it should be my choice.’ Yawn,” Richler wrote in the post dated Oct. 9, 2014.

Richler, an author and culture commentator who is also the son of the late novelist Mordecai Richler did not agree to an interview Tuesday but emailed a statement through an NDP spokeswoman acknowledging his remarks could be interpreted in a way he did not intend.