Conservatives drop second election candidate in one day

The Conservative Party logo as seen on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021 during a virtual town hall in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

The Conservatives have dropped a second candidate in the election race, in a single day.

Stefan Marquis — who was running for the Conservatives in the Montreal riding of Laurier—Sainte-Marie, held by Liberal cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault since 2019 — wrote in a post on social media that he is no longer a candidate for the party.

“In a call received this morning from one of Quebec’s operations managers for the party, I was told without further note that ‘certain’ individuals within the party had consulted my recent posts on Twitter-X and deemed these sufficient reason to end our political collaboration,” Marquis wrote on X, along with a cartoon image of a hand pressing a button on a person’s head to get them to speak. “The call lasted less than a minute.”

Recent social media posts by Marquis promote popular right-wing conspiracy theories, including that Bill Gates is trying to manipulate public health for profit through vaccines, and that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “provoked” by the expansion of NATO.

He also criticized Canada’s equalization payment system, calling Quebec “a disgrace,” and adding “Plateau snobs, ecocrats and other shameless socialists should be put on galleys for impoverishing us into the pit.”

Maquis’ social media posts also include shared posts taking aim at Liberal Leader Mark Carney, including an “exposé” calling the former central banker the “grim reaper for the economic destruction of Canada,” and linking him to convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell.

In his post announcing he’ll no longer be running for the Conservatives, Marquis called himself a “devoted ally” of the party.

“The party in so doing desecrated the basic principle of the first of our natural rights: that of liberty,” Marquis wrote.

“Publish a non-vetted tweet on X and expect ostracization from your natural ally. This now appears to be the way of Canadian politics,” he also wrote.

A Conservative party spokesperson confirmed the news in an email to CTV News on Tuesday, writing: “Mr. Marquis is no longer a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada.”

The party also disqualified Windsor, Ont. city councillor Mark McKenzie, who once voiced his support for “public hangings,” even joking that former prime minister Justin Trudeau should receive the death penalty. Audio of the comments were first obtained by CTV News.

With files from CTV News’ Vassy Kapelos and Stephanie Ha