The B.C. Conservatives have dropped their candidate in a Vancouver Island riding over social media posts a B.C. NDP candidate called out earlier Thursday as “horrific racism.”
Joachim Agou is running in the NDP stronghold of Victoria-Beacon Hill.
“There is no excuse for this. I will not tolerate it. The candidate in Victoria-Beacon Hill is no longer a Conservative candidate. If elected, he will not serve in the caucus,” interim Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson wrote in a brief statement.
Doerkson’s announcement came after a news release from the B.C. NDP alleging Agou’s posts on X “attacked the Pakistani community as ‘a s**thole,’” said a car that drove through a group of protesters “should have reversed” through them too, and celebrated white supremacist politicians”
Agou’s X account is no longer publicly accessible, so CTV News was unable to view the contents of the posts the NDP’s news release linked to.
NDP candidate Amna Shah shared screenshots of some X posts Thursday, calling on the Conservatives to drop Agou as a candidate.
CTV News caught up with Agou in the capital Thursday and asked him to comment on being dropped by the party as well as whether he stands by his previous posts.
“I’ll look into it,” he said.
