Candidate controversies

The provincial election is just 9 days away and the parties are busy digging up dirt. A couple of photos from the past surfaced today, one shows NDP candidate Gurratan Singh, the younger brother of Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, holding a sign that says “F the police”

Singh, a prominent candidate running in Brampton East, says 12 years ago he attended a public demonstration and was photographed holding a sign in which he is now, “deeply ashamed of” and “apologize unreservedly to police officers”

Andrea Horwath saying she absolutely still supports him as a candidate but Burlington Liberal candidate Eleanor Mcmahon, widow of a police officer, saying “Andrea should definitely separate herself from this candidate and make it extraordinarily clear immediately that she is going to ask him to step aside.”

Horwath fighting back citing the 407 data breach where a now former PC candidate is accused of stealing customer information to further their campaign.

Another photo has surfaced of Hamilton-area PC candidate Donna Skelly holding a hat that says “Free Bird Media”, a right-wing website that gives a platform to white nationalists. It was taken at a McMaster University Conservatives Christmas party last year. Skelly, who is also a city councillor, said until this morning she didn’t know what Free Bird Media was and that the hat was handed to her before her speech.

“I stayed at an event for 20 minutes and accepted a hat. I don’t know who these people are, I don’t know anything about the group and I didn’t at the time.”