Jason Cherniak, the Ontario Liberal candidate in Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, has fallen into the Conservatives’ crosshairs, with the PCs pointing to old tweets that they say “encouraged and rationalized drunk driving.”
In a 2010 post on Twitter, now 2010, Cherniak wrote: “Late night public transit is an incentive for people to drive drunk (I write sitting on an imobile #VIVA) #ttc #yrt.”
It is not the only online post the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario is flagging concerns about. Cherniak posted another tweet from the same year, where he wrote: “Omg! Got pulled over for tweeting while driving! #cdnpoli.”
The release from the PCs also pointed to a blog post from 2006, in which an account under Cherniak’s name said: “I got a shirt for the ‘Ted Kennedy School of Driving’” in an apparent reference to former U.S. senator Ted Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick incident, which saw Mary Jo Kopechne die after a car crash in which Kennedy was driving.
In response, Cherniak said the Ontario Conservatives “are trying to distract from real issues by misconstruing a 15-year-old tweet.”
“I am running for the Ontario Liberal Party because I want to support my community, cut taxes and help people find a family doctor,” Cherniak said in a statement. “The PCs and Michael Parsa are trying to distract from real issues by misconstruing a 15-year-old tweet. I am focused on what I can do for our riding and earning the trust of local voters in this election.”
The unearthing of Cherniak’s old tweets comes as the PCs have drawn attention to social media posts of several Liberal candidates throughout the province.
The party also pointed to posts by Rick Ellsmere, Liberal candidate for Timiskaming-Cochrane, where he made a joke about transgender people. Ellsmere posted an apology on social media on Tuesday.
Viresh Bansal, Liberal candidate for Oshawa, has also apologized for a Twitter reply he posted in 2023, that cheered on the assassination of a Canadian Sikh activist and called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "gay."
Ontario Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie has largely dismissed the Tories' efforts and has not dropped any of the candidates, but she did denounce Bansal’s post.
"Doug Ford is just trying to distract from his failures and scandals. “I’m not going to play this game," she said in a written statement in regards to Ellsmere’s post. "This candidate has apologized. And if Doug Ford has a problem with MY campaign – he should say it to my face."
~ With files from Allison Jones, The Canadian Press