A strategist with a history of supporting centre-right and right-leaning parties says he’s voting BC NDP on Saturday — partly thanks to the Conservatives’ decision to stand behind a controversial candidate.
Surrey South Candidate Brent Chapman has been under fire for nearly a week for numerous hateful and racist comments he’s made on social media — starting from about a decade ago, but including up until last month.
Chapman’s comments have targeted residential school survivors, Palestinians, and Muslims, among others.
Kareem Allam, a political strategist who’s worked with local, provincial, and federal campaigns on the political right, says the controversy has pushed the Conservatives off-message for the last week.
“They’re not able to get their message on whatever their economic plan is or whatever their health care plan is. All they’ve been doing is talking about Brent Chapman,” said Allam.
“So the orthodoxy in politics is, when you have a problematic candidate, you move them along.”
Allam says he’s never been a member of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, and belonged to BC United before its collapse in August.
Recently, he says he’s made the “deliberate decision” to fight against the Conservatives, rather than follow BC United Leader Kevin Falcon’s direction to support.
“I refused to join the party, but over the trajectory of the campaign, things just got more and more hateful that I felt like I had to speak up,” said Allam.
He says he’s decided he can’t support a party that stands behind candidates like Chapman and others who have made comments about LGBTQIA+ communities, for instance.
If elected, Rustad hasn’t said whether Chapman will be a part of his caucus or cabinet.
As a Muslim man, Allam says the specific targetting of hate speech against his community always has an effect.
“Targeting in my community has made it harder for us to travel — has made it harder for us to find work, but then he also made it harder for us just to go out and enjoy an evening alone without being accosted on a SkyTrain. These kinds of comments that Brent Chapman made don’t make life easier for Muslims. They don’t make life easier for any community. And the fact that this was allowed to stand and the leader of their party stood behind him as he made those comments is beyond the pale.”
Allam says he’s spoken to dozens of conservatives who will be voting for the BC NDP in the provincial election on Saturday, Oct. 19.