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.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    10 hours ago

    They’re trying to distance themselves from the loonie elements of the party because the association with Trumpism is going to cost them the election.

    Good.

  • corsicanguppy
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    3 days ago

    So, two candidates saying borderline libelous things and urging the lynching of a former leader, both got fired?

    Yeah. That tracks. I like it when the CPC accidentally does something proper, as rare as it may be.

  • imrighthere
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    3 days ago

    They also dropped fact checking on ctv. conservative traitors don’t want you having facts.

    • Sturgist
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      3 days ago

      Definitely looking that way. Disavowing and disowning anyone too vocal about it. Guess they’re realising that running a Canadian MGT probably isn’t the best tactic for Canada…

  • HonoredMule
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    3 days ago

    One-upmanship at its finest. Thanks for the diversion, I guess. :P

  • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    13
    ·
    3 days ago

    Ok, I absolutely hate the conservatives in Canada. But the expansion of NATO was absolutely a factor in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (just not the only one) and Bill Gates went around to universities working on the COVID vaccine for free and convinced them to sell it for profit. He’s been anti shareware since forever. These aren’t far right conspiracy theories. Unless I’m missing something here.

    • MacroCyclo
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 days ago

      I think the paragraph just after that was more relevant.

      • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Ah yeah. I’m glad this guy is no longer in the running’s. But people with these opinions definitely are, they just don’t say it out loud.