Nova Scotia NDP candidate steps down over offensive online comments

McEwen said he is supportive of equal rights and apologized for what he called misogynistic comments that reflect poor judgement.

He is the second candidate in the run up to Nova Scotia’s May 30 election to be embroiled in controversy related to inappropriate online comments.

Nova Scotia Liberal candidate Matthew MacKnight was dropped earlier this month over comments he made on social media in 2013.

The Pictou East candidate purportedly called someone an expletive and used the hashtags #downsyndrome and #stupidcustomers on May 28, 2013, according to Global News.

Meanwhile, McEwen is a former naval officer, award-winning journalist and IT professional, according to his candidate profile, which calls him a “passionate defender of the public good.”

He won an Atlantic Journalism Award for his coverage of the Occupy Nova Scotia protests, the candidate profile said, and he was nominated for a National Newspaper Award for an article about immigration to Prince Edward Island.

He graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada, had experience deployed overseas and worked at the military’s Expeditionary Force Command Headquarters in Ottawa.

In an interview with CTV Monday prior to stepping down, McEwen said he was “very, very sorry” for the material published online.

He said the comments were a “really terrible thing” to have published and he apologized to “everyone affected by it.”

“The misogynistic stuff, the stuff about the LGBT communities … I’m very supportive of equal rights, and so that was really poor judgement and I want to apologize for that,” he told CTV.

He said he removed the website and deleted the Facebook comments because he was uncomfortable with the content, CTV reported.

McEwen resigned late Monday.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Nova Scotia NDP candidate steps down over offensive online comments

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