A former B.C. United strategist says the party made a major misstep by tapping, then dropping, the head of the B.C. Muslim Association as a candidate in a key Surrey riding.
Asad Gondal was dropped by B.C. United three days after he was introduced by Leader Kevin Falcon as the candidate for Surrey North. It came after online backlash to some of Gondal’s previous statements on the war in Gaza and on LGTBQ issues.
Kareem Allam, a Vancouver-based political strategist who previously worked on Falcon’s leadership campaign in 2022, said the party viewed Gondal as a way to win support from the Muslim community.
However, Allam said Gondal’s “extreme” views do not reflect the entire community.
“It’s painful because, for moderate Muslims like me, we’re trying to break from that Sharia law viewpoint.”
Now, by dropping Asad Gondal as a candidate, the party has angered and divided the Muslim community, Allam said.
It also raises questions about Falcon’s leadership and leaves the party scrambling to find a new candidate in Surrey North.
Gondal stood beside Falcon in Surrey on Sunday as he was introduced as a strong Muslim leader to represent the party.
Now, Falcon is distancing himself from Gondal, saying his views are inconsistent with the party’s values.
Gondal was among those who signed a letter sent by the B.C. Muslim Association in October, which called the war in Gaza a genocide. Falcon was under pressure from the Jewish community to remove Gondal for those comments.
Falcon stood behind Gondal for three days, even as the issue exposed infighting within the party as B.C. United candidates pressured him to take action.
Caroline Elliott, B.C. United candidate for North Vancouver posted a letter to social media on Monday calling on the party to replace Gondal.
“While I have long defended free speech … there is a role for political parties to select candidates based on the degree to which they align with the party’s principles,” said Elliott, the party’s former vice president and Falcon’s sister-in-law.
Falcon was not available for an interview on Wednesday. He said in a statement that he terminated Gondal because his views did not align with the party’s values.
Ian Paton, B.C. United MLA for Delta South, says despite recent MLA defections to the B.C. Conservatives, the party still has talented people who will work throughout the summer to develop policy ideas.
Hamish Telford, a political scientist for the University of the Fraser Valley, said while Gondal represents an important minority community, his views were too out of line with B.C. United.
“His view around the Israel conflict with Gaza … as well as his perspective on same-sex marriage, I think just made him too toxic for the party. Particularly when B.C. United’s strategy is to go after the B.C. Conservatives on those sorts of issues. It was inevitable that Mr. Gondal was going to be a sacrificial lamb here.”
This is the first candidate that B.C. United has had to drop. It leaves the party scrambling for a new candidate for Surrey North four months before the provincial election.
Surrey is a key battleground riding. Ten seats are up for grabs, seven of which are held by NDP incumbents. The election is set for Oct. 19.
The B.C. Conservatives have lost three candidates due to controversial social media comments.
The most recent was Damon Scrase, the former candidate for Courtenay-Comox, who resigned following social media posts which said Pride parades have become places where “perverts” expose themselves to children.
The party also dropped Jan Webb in the Esquimalt-Colwood riding for claiming that vaccinated people spread COVID-19. Denman Island doctor Stephen Malthouse was removed as a candidate for claiming that COVID-19 vaccines make a person magnetic.