Criticize former Boundary-Similkameen BC Conservative candidate, current Independent candidate Mischa Popoff all you like, at least he’s not afraid to speak his mind.
At last week’s all-candidates meeting Popoff spoke his mind on teachers’ salaries, earning the ire of teachers and people in the audience, but it was reportedly some opinion pieces he wrote that ultimately led to the provincial Conservatives dismissing him.
Popoff was said to have taken shots at the Missing Women Inquiry and single mothers but clarified to the Gazette that he was referring to how the lengthy inquiry didn’t yield any changes and he was pro double-parenting, as opposed to anti-single mothers.
He said that when he was being let go, he asked the BC Conservatives if he could send the columns in question. They reportedly declined.
Provincial Conservative leader John Cummins issued the following statement on Sunday:
“In light of last week’s revelation about two of our candidates, I ordered a full re-vetting of all BC Conservative candidates. These are never easy situations for a campaign, but I believe that leaders must act proactively. As a result of this process the senior volunteer responsible for vetting has stepped down from that position … ”
Given that a number of candidates have been dismissed over the last few week’s it’s easy to see why they are re-examining the screening process but isn’t it a little too late for this?
It wasn’t like Popoff’s columns were written recently. The one regarding single mothers was apparently from one written in March 2012.
The columns were there for all to read and the BC Conservatives should’ve examined all of Popoff’s columns and factored that in when originally declaring him the Boundary-Similkameen candidate.
Popoff isn’t the only recent candidate to be let go, as Vancouver-False Creek candidate Ian Tootill was also dismissed for alleged tweets relating to Hitler and Nazi Germany – the tweets were said to be from last October, long before the writ for the 2013 B.C. election was issued.
Popoff has been writing opinion pieces for a while, so he has a big body of work.
A body of work that the BC Conservatives should have examined before making the decision to whether or whether or not he would be a suitable candidate in the riding.
Twitter accounts are easily accessible and it’s not hard to examine a person’s account.
Now as it stands, Popoff is running as an Independent and there is no BC Conservative candidate in the Boundary-Similkameen, something that occurred with about two weeks before general voting day.
– Grand Forks Gazette