Okanagan Conservatives remove ‘inappropriate’ content and apologize to Minister Sajjan

After a social media post made by the Okanagan Conservatives caused a stir this afternoon, some controversial content was removed from their Facebook page.

The controversy started with a post made about Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, where the Okanagan Conservatives wrote “This is what happens when you have a cabinet based on affirmative action,” in reference to a story criticizing the minister.

Liberal MP Stephen Fuhr brought the post to the attention of Dan Albas, MP for the Conservative party, saying “I’m not ok with what this implies. You are an ‘Okanagan Conservative’ Dan Albas, are you?”

Albas responded to the controversial posting with an apology, promising that it would be removed from the account, which it was.

“Political debate and discussions should always be about policy and not personal attacks. Minister Sajjan has served our country honourably in many capacities and was undeserving of the comments that were posted,” said Albas on Twitter.

“Stephen, although there is much that we may disagree about, on this point I am in full agreement with you. This Facebook post came from another EDA account and I have asked that it be removed. Although I did not authorize it, I would like to apologize to Harjit Sajjan.”

The posting with the comment was removed, however, a short time later another post was made and quickly taken down on the same Facebook account.

“This card is expired. No one cares about your insults and Conservatives are growing a backbone starting today,” the post said. It was quickly removed and an apology post is now up.

“We’ve deleted an earlier post that was clearly inappropriate and that simply does not reflect the views of the party or any of the EDA’s in the Okanagan. We apologize to Minister Sajjan and all those we’ve offended,” reads the apology.