The Ontario NDP fired back at a northwestern Ontario man who says the party refused to let him run as a candidate in Kenora-Rainy River because of concerns about social media posts he described as "frivolous."
Matt Soprovich told CBC on Thursday he was excluded as a candidate because of a post about being badly hungover, a video of him tearing his shirt off like a professional wrestler, and a photo of him exposing his bare buttocks.
The NDP released a statement Thursday saying Soprovich failed the party's vetting process because of "multiple social media posts that glorified violence against women or predatory behaviour towards women."
"In one example," the party wrote, "Soprovich compares women to animals, writing 'you might end up hitting them with your car.'"
"In another example," it said, "Soprovich describes, in a blog, efforts to prevent a woman from coming to the aid of her sister in a potentially dangerous or compromising situation, saying he was trying to stop her from being a 'cock block.'"
"We understand Soprovich has claimed that other, perhaps less troublesome, posts were the reason he is not fit to represent our party," the NDP wrote in its statement.
"I think these examples they are giving ... are pretty silly, pretty laughable, [and] pretty frivolous," Soprovich said before the NDP statement was released.
"Obviously, that's not the case. We stand behind our decision to work to build a team of candidates that can be trusted not to say or write things that degrade women or glorify violence against women."