MISSISSAUGA—An NDP candidate who was asked to step down this week in the B.C. riding of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo says he “immensely” regrets telling an energy journalist in an online dispute that he would “like to break his jaw.”

Just days after he was named the NDP’s candidate in the Interior riding, Dock Currie announced Wednesday that the party asked him to resign as a candidate after he said officials learned of a private online dispute that took place two years ago.

“It was a crude, stupid hot take and I regret it immensely,” Currie wrote in a direct message to the Star on Wednesday.

“I unreservedly apologize for being flip and aggressive in that exchange,” he said.

The NDP would not say exactly why Currie was asked to resign, though one official confirmed to the Star that the former candidate’s online messages were of concern.

In a written statement, party spokesperson Melanie Richer said the NDP has “an outstanding field of candidates” who were chosen based on high standards.

“I’m really proud of (our) team of candidates that reflect the diversity of Canada and fight for things that people need, like affordable housing and universal pharmacare,” she said.

Currie was the second candidate to represent the NDP ahead of this year’s federal election, after his predecessor stepped down this summer citing personal reasons. His resignation comes as the federal party kicks off the 2019 federal campaign with fewer declared candidates than the other parties. As of Wednesday night, the party had secured candidates in 235 of Canada’s 338 ridings, Richer said.

Currie told the Star he agreed to resign after the NDP asked him about his exchanges online with journalists Markham Hislop and Max Fawcett. Currie said the three engaged in a debate on pipeline and energy policies, and that he made comments that were “unbefitting a candidate.”

“I was a grad student and didn’t think it would be under a microscope. I regret the phrasing, I wish we could have an intelligent conversation about the contradictions in social democratic parties to do with oil and how they make people fight,” he said.

He added that he still supports the NDP and wants a party with social democratic values to have strong representation in Parliament after the election on Oct. 21.

But Currie added that the episode could mean the NDP’s vetting process places too much emphasis on past social media comments. He also pointed to the case a Sid Ryan, a prominent labour leader in Ontario who dropped his nomination application over what he described as unreasonable delays for a person who has run previously for the federal NDP.

“I think it is a general problem,” Currie said Wednesday. “We’re in a different media age and environment and, as the most recent casualty, I think we ought to be cognizant of that fact.”

Fawcett declined to be interviewed when contacted by the Star. Hislop, however, confirmed that he and Fawcett engaged in a debate on Facebook with Currie about two years ago, but that he did not share the messages with the NDP.

Hislop, who writes about the energy industry on his website Energi.Media, said Currie messaged them after a discussion in a comment thread on a story about pipelines.

“He threatened to break Max’s jaw, so I can confirm that,” Hislop told the Star by phone. “What he threatened me with was a degree or two less than that, but still — physical violence.”

Hislop said that, as an energy journalist who writes supportively about both lowering carbon emissions and continued development in the oilsands, he is used to receiving aggressive emails and messages. He said Currie deserves the chance to apologize and shouldn’t be forced to resign for comments made in the often-heated arena of social media.

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“When people screw up, and almost everybody screws up on social media at some point, they should be allowed the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves — to apologize and make good,” he said.

“We’ve become so leery of scandal that accompanies these things… Maybe it’s gone a bit too far, because nobody is going to want to run for office if their social media accounts are going to be combed through.”

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