For those keeping score at home, we are up to at least 18 federal election candidates blown up by their own social media landmines -- and that doesn't even count the guy caught peeing in the coffee cup.
There were, of course, the two Vancouver Island Liberals who pulled the plug last week, Cowichan-Malahat-Langford's Maria Manna was deep-sixed by a 2013 Facebook post about the 9/11 "lie." Victoria's Cheryl Thomas was done in by posts that resulted in her apologizing to both Jews and Muslims (a rare twofer).
Among the previous casualties:
A Toronto Conservative who appeared in YouTube prank videos in which he A) made fun of people with mental disabilities and B) faked an orgasm during a call to a female customer service agent.
A Calgary Liberal who as a teen tweeted "your mother should have used that coat hanger" to one critic and "go blow your brains out you waste of sperm" to another.
A Hamilton, Ont., New Democrat whose 2008 Facebook post compared concentration camp power poles to penises. She didn't step down, but did apologize, saying: "I didn't know what Auschwitz was." (Pause to consider whether ignorance of history's most-notorious death camp was her best defence.)
Which raises a few questions:
1. You can't get hired as a minimum-wage stockboy without the HR department trolling through your social-media past like the CIA tracking Jason Bourne, yet you can get nominated to run the country without anyone checking for tinfoil hats?
2. At what point should the wounds be fatal?
It's hard to figure out what voters will forgive. Our first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, survived both his railway scandal and his drinking. (He was said to have admonished D'Arcy McGee: "There's only room for one drunk in this government and unfortunately for you, that position's already taken.")
More recently, Louisiana voters kept re-electing the corrupt (and eventually incarcerated) governor Edwin Edwards, leading him to boast: "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy."
Meanwhile, Rob Ford gets re-elected to Toronto city council after smoking crack with gangstas and lying about it, yet Cheryl Thomas can't speak bluntly about the Middle East? Her comments -- one referring to mosques as "brainwashing stations," another ripping Israel's treatment of Palestinians -- demanded fuller explanation but needn't have resulted in immediate political hara-kiri, particularly since her resignation came too late for the Liberals to replace her as the candidate in Victoria.
That leaves a situation like the New Democrats faced in 2008 when, too late for his name to be pulled from the ballot, their candidate in Saanich-Gulf Islands withdrew following allegations that he had stripped naked in front of a group of teenage girls at a 1996 environmental retreat. (He still got six per cent of the vote, though it's hard to say whether the support came from New Democrats or nudists.)
Never mind, once an old Facebook post has been treated as a smoking gun, the voters smell gunpowder, so you might as well quit without trying to defend your words. This campaign will be remembered for the number of candidates toppled by their own boomerangs.
They are so many that they have become the subject of parody. A new Twitter account, @Elxn42scandals, is dedicated to nothing but fictitious candidate resignations/ousters. ("Liberal candidate from Ottawa Valley Heights turfed before even finishing sentence beginning with 'It's not that I'm racist; I just think...' ") Not to be outdone, This Hour Has 22 Minutes weighed in with "BREAKING: Candidate resigns over social media post where she uses 'their' instead of 'they're.' "
With that in mind, I have done some digging of my own, come up with the following:
Justin Trudeau, Tumblr: "Moussed my hair for TV debate, but it's just not ready."
Stephen Harper, Facebook: "OMG, barbaric practices tip line crashes on Halloween. WTF Telus?"
Elizabeth May, Twitter: "Went into restaurant. Maitre d' said 'party of one?' so I slugged him. Don't know why they have to keep rubbing it in. #wordshurt"
Thomas Mulcair, diary: "Stephen must be stopped. No, Justin must be stopped. God, l don't know who to stop anymore. Caught Liz stealing my votes. I hate junior high."
Watergate, in 140 characters or less.
Anthony Weiner could not be reached for comment.
