Sexual Assault Allegations Forces Liberals to Remove Candidate From Spadina-Fort York
What happens to your vote when a candidate is removed two days out from an election?
And who said politics is boring?
If you haven’t heard — Liberal party candidate Kevin Vuong has been remarkably removed as the candidate for Spadina-Fort York after previous sexual assaults allegations have come to light:
I first found out via this NDP pamphlet in my mailbox:
So what happens now? Mail and advanced voting has been open for weeks.
- Do the people who may have already voted Liberal get given the right to change their vote? Or would a voter be stuck with whoever steps in to replace the candidate? — UPDATE: Details on what happens next provided by CBC
- What happens if the Liberals do not decide to run a candidate in the seat (which would be unfathomable given this was probably their easiest seat in all of Canada)?
- What if the charges are false? Does that even matter if he failed to disclose this conduct in the past? Is that even ethical for a political party to force candidates to disclose this information?
I’ve reached out to Elections Canada for clarity on the situation.
On Kevin Vuong — I am lost for words as to how not only the Liberal party, but also the Canadian military failed to identify such information on one of their members.
Furthermore — even if the charges against Vuong are false (as they were dropped), why would someone run for office knowing this could be used by opponents? It seems like a very significant lack of judgement.
I met Kevin on the street in my electoral district only 3 days ago, and wrote a piece on how nice it was to meet a younger candidate for the first time (which has since been removed). As I walked along the streets near Trinity Bellwoods park today, I noticed there was a significant drop in the number of red “Kevin Vuong” signs that had been dominating the neighbourhood for weeks.
This has rocked me in ways I didn’t think Canadian politics could.
