A man who gained brief notoriety for his unusual poll station protest of a woman who swore her oath of Canadian citizenship while wearing a niqab will now be vying for votes as a candidate for the People’s Party of Canada.

Elections Canada records show Ken Finlayson is representing the People’s Party as its candidate in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, where he’ll try to unseat incumbent Conservative MP Cathy McLeod in the fall’s general election.

About four years ago, Finlayson garnered attention when he wore cowboy attire complete with a bandana shielding his face to vote at an advance polling station in Edmonton in the federal election. At the time, he told CBC News that he chose to cover his face — as voters can legally do — to protest a woman who was allowed to wear a face covering while swearing her citizenship oath.

Zunera Ishaq was eventually allowed to wear a niqab for the ceremony, despite court challenges against her being allowed to do so. Stephen Harper’s Conservative government had fought against allowing the facial veil to be worn during the ceremony because of its association with “a culture that is anti-women,” as the former prime minister put it.

A debate over the niqab became a part of the national discussion during the 2015 campaign, with it eventually being raised during the federal leaders’ debate, just weeks before the election. The Federal Court of Appeal sided with Ishaq, who had worn a niqab since she was 15 years old. Once the Liberals took office, then-justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould withdrew the government’s challenge of the decision to the Supreme Court, in her first act after being appointed.

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“I think that court decision allowing that woman to wear a niqab was about the dumbest thing you could ever do,” Finlayson said to CBC News at the time. “You know, we have a long tradition of, sort of, civilized procedures, and I respect that, and if people come to this country and they want to change that I’m going to fight them.”

Finlayson added that his protest was “the exact opposite” of being anti-Muslim or anti-feminist, instead saying that the action was his way of objecting to inequality, which he says was created by Ishaq being allowed to cover her face for religious reasons.

Ishaq told CBC News at the time that her decision to wear her niqab during the ceremony was a “personal choice” that had “nothing to do with anyone,” and that it was “disappointing” to be turned into a political issue.

Finlayson was officially acclaimed as the People’s Party candidate for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo on June 15.

He previously ran as an independent candidate in the 2017 byelection in the Saskatchewan riding of Battlefords-Lloydminster. Conservative MP Rosemarie Falk won the byelection with about 70 per cent of the vote. Finlayson finished in fourth place with five per cent of the vote.

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