Academic and author Salim Mansur will run for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) after being disqualified to seek the Conservative nomination.
The recently retired Western University professor will now be carrying the PPC banner in the riding of London North Centre in this fall’s federal election after the fledging party announced him as the candidate at a rally last week.
Mansur’s nomination comes only a month after it was revealed that the Conservative party leadership in Ottawa had disallowed him from running for the CPC nomination in the same riding.
Mansur is a renowned scholar and writer, with much of his work criticizing Islamism and radical politics in Islam. Mansur himself is a practising Muslim.
Despite being told by the Conservative’s regional organizer that he was free to run last year, early last month he was suddenly informed that he had been “disallowed,” without any official reasons provided.
“The (National Candidate Selection Committee of the Conservative Party of Canada) has disallowed your candidacy as a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada,” said CPC executive director Dustin Van Vugt in an email.
Though an interview at the time, Mansur told True North’s Andrew Lawton that Andrew Scheer’s campaign manager, Hamish Marshall, told him the party had been concerned that his previous writing might lead critics to label the CPC as “Islamophobic” if he were to become a candidate.
The PPC and its leader Maxime Bernier welcomed Mansur into their ranks with open arms, given his name recognition and his credentials.
Mansur was one of the 35 candidates recently named to run for the PPC in southwestern Ontario.
On his website, Mansur is highly critical of the governing Liberals and asks for the people of London North Centre to support his bid to represent them.
“Like most Canadians, I am distressed by the state of affairs relating to our economy, our foreign policy and our relationship with the United States, as mismanaged by Liberals under the leadership of Justin Trudeau in Ottawa,” he said.
“Most importantly, I believe, we must not be intimidated by political correctness to express our hopes and fears for our country.”