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It may be labour day, but this was no holiday for federal party leaders. They were out on the campaign trial as the 11 week election campaign is nearing the half way point, and the focus today seemed to be on 2 conservative candidates and questionable behaviour.
The conservative campaign has dropped 2 Toronto candidates today after a couple of offensive and embarrassing videos surfaced online.
Jerry Bance, who was running in Scarborough Rouge Park, was the first to go after he was caught on camera peeing in a homeowner’s coffee cup and then pouring it down the kitchen sink while he was working as a repair man during a service call in a 2012.
He’s since apologized saying “I deeply regret my actions on that day.”
A short time later Tim Dutaud, from Toronto-Danforth, was forced out after youtube videos surfaced of him making prank calls, including one where he pretends to have a disability. The videos appear to have been posted about 6 years ago.
This came just before Conservative leader Stephen Harper announced he would improve a federal disability grant program during a campaign stop in Mississauga. He was asked about it and about the quality of candidates he was attracting.
“What this says is that we keep the highest standard for candidates and these 2 individuals are no longer candidates.”
Harper said there would be new candidates in those ridings.
During his own campaign stop in Toronto, NDP leader Tom Mulcair used the urinating incident to mock the conservatives.
“I guess that this is 1 mug shot canadians weren’t expecting from the Conservatives. This must be someone who’s adept at Stephen Harper’s trickle-down theory of economics.”
The scandal was trending under the hashtag “#peegate” on twitter, with many posting jokes and captioned photos about the incident.
Political scientist Nelson Wiseman says the ‘peegate’ scandal won’t have a national impact. He says in an individual riding it can be a big deal especially if it happened after it was too late to pull his name off the ballot.
