Winnipeg North PPC candidate ends run for 'racist, intolerant' party

The People's Party of Canada candidate in the Winnipeg North federal riding has resigned after deciding the party is "racist and intolerant."

In an email statement sent to the Free Press Tuesday, Victor Ong — "the son of Asian immigrants" — said he was resigning, effective immediately.

"Admittedly, the PPC paradigms are a little radical/right for my comfort level," Ong wrote. "Still, up until recently, I would have never considered this party (at its core) racist and intolerant.

"And, because no one set of policies 'fits all,' I tended to focus more on (PPC Leader) Maxime Bernier's frank talk and candour. In spite of not always agreeing with Mr. Bernier's sentiments, I respected his willingness to address unpopular issues and concerns — and a handful of 'common sense' policies which would benefit everyone. Unfortunately, the extreme interpretation of these policies has attracted all manner of fringe, scores of conspiracy theorists and a host of ugliness from coast to coast. That's not to mention Bernier's embittered base, replete with 'white is right' ideology and (Make America Great Again) hat-wearing members.

"Increasingly, this is neither a source of pride, nor a good look, for the son of Asian immigrants."

Ong is the second candidate in Winnipeg North who has dropped out of the race to try to unseat Liberal incumbent Kevin Lamoureux in the Oct. 21 federal election.

Cameron Ogilvie, who had been nominated to run for the Conservative party, quit on the first day of the campaign last month after PressProgress, a left-wing media arm of the Broadbent Institute, found he had shared social-media posts expressing ethnocentric and Islamophobic sentiments.

The party immediately asked Ogilvie to step down and replaced him with candidate Jordyn Ham.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca