The Ontario Liberals have lost another candidate a week before election day.
Leader Steven Del Duca says Audrey Festeryga has withdrawn her candidacy for Chatham-Kent-Leamington and will no longer appear in the Liberal vote.
The development means there are now three constituencies in which the Liberals are not running for the June 2 provincial election.
Festeryga had intervened after the party dropped a pre-constituency candidate who had used a homophobic insult on social media as a preteen.
But Festeryga’s candidacy was also questioned by the new Democrats, who have alleged that she was fraudulently registered with signatures collected in support of the abandoned candidate.
Del Duca declined to comment on the validity of the allegations of fraud, but instead accused the NDP of “attacking” Festeryga, which he says prompted her to withdraw from the race.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on May 26, 2022.