VIDEO from CBC News
TORONTO, Canada—A Toronto businessman who had been running for Parliament with Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s party made the wrong kind of splash and has been dropped by his party after being caught on video urinating in a coffee cup.
The tinkling tale of Jerry Bance, who had been filmed while working as an appliance repairman, and the Conservatives’ ousting of another candidate Monday caps a bad week for Harper. The prime minister now faces re-election as Canada has entered a recession.
Bance was recorded by the Canadian Broadcast Corp.’s hidden cameras in 2012 as he was peeing into a cup and pouring it down the sink while on a service call. The homeowner was in the next room. Bance runs an appliance repair company, and the CBC was reporting on home repair companies.
A Conservative party spokesman said Monday “Mr. Bance is no longer a candidate.” He had been running in a Toronto district in the Oct. 19 election.
Bance said in a statement he “deeply regrets” the incident and it doesn’t reflect who he is as person or professional.
Screengrab from CBC News Youtube
Just hours after announcing that Bance was out, the Conservatives said Monday that they had dropped another Toronto parliamentary candidate—Tim Dutaud, who had been seen making prank calls in several videos posted on YouTube, including one where he pretends to have a mental disability.
Harper, who is trying to win a rare fourth term in an election analysts call a toss-up, said his party expects “the highest standards” of its candidates and “that’s why these two individuals are no longer candidates.”
Opposition New Democrat leader Tom Mulcair did not miss a chance to mock Bance and Harper.
“He must be someone who is adept at Stephen Harper’s trickle-down theory of economics,” Mulcair said.
Last week, a government agency announced Canada recorded its second straight quarter of economic contraction, meeting economists’ definition of a recession.
Harper’s government was also criticized for not doing enough for Syrian refugees amid the migrant crisis overseas.