OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer will stick by candidates who apologize and take ownership of past offside remarks.

Several candidates from multiple parties were turfed in the early days of the federal election campaign after racist or controversial remarks were dredged up from old social media posts.

Scheer said Saturday night that if candidates are willing to take responsibility for past offensive remarks and apologize, he does not think they should be disqualified from seeking public office.

“I think we all have to acknowledge the fact that people can make mistakes and people can own up to that,” Scheer told reporters flying with him to British Columbia on Saturday night, adding that the party will make decisions on a case-by-case basis.

The Liberal Party’s election war room has been emailing reporters travelling with the Conservatives each day, drawing attention to controversial remarks by Conservative candidates Scheer planned to campaign with as he travels the country.

On Saturday, the Liberals flagged Kanata-Carleton candidate Justina McCaffrey’s friendship with Faith Goldy, a far-right commentator who is banned from Facebook for amplifying white supremacist causes.

The video was from 2013, when Goldy was a fringe personality in Ottawa political and media circles, but had not yet embraced far-right movements. But Liberal candidate Maryam Monsef said McCaffrey’s friendship meant Goldy was “embraced” by Scheer’s Conservatives.

McCaffrey fled reporters’ questions at a rally with Scheer in Ottawa Saturday, according to video posted by the CBC.

It’s the latest in a line of MP hopefuls that found controversy or were disqualified by their parties in the early days of the federal election campaign.

Last week, the Conservatives booted Winnipeg North candidate Cameron Ogilvie over Islamophobic and anti-immigration comments posted to a Facebook account the party says he kept secret from them.

The NDP also lost Dock Currie, their candidate for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, over inappropriate online comments. Green Party candidate Erik Schomann stepped down over an old comment about sending pork to Muslims.

The People’s Party has also lost a candidate, but not over racist comments. Instead, he was booted from the party for asking leader Maxime Bernier to crack down on racists within their ranks.

With files from The Canadian Press

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