Old photos of Conservative candidate Michael Skinner drinking champagne in a limousine alongside other men - including one who appears to be smoking drugs - were circulated on social media this week and Skinner is calling it "mudslinging."

Skinner, 43, says the photos show him at age 27, having "a couple of drinks in a limo" on his way to a Toronto Blue Jays game in 2004.

Drinking alcohol in a limousine is illegal; the law only permits it in a home or a bar.

Still, Skinner said, the photos were posted to distract people from campaign issues - and that his campaign would never stoop "to this level of mudslinging."

Not so, says Tanya Fusco, who tweeted the photos after finding them on a public Facebook page.

She stated in a message to The Examiner that this election has had "a great deal of mudslinging and personal attacks," with some of Skinner's volunteers and supporters "targeting" Liberal incumbent Maryam Monsef for being a Muslim.

In one instance, several Twitter users ask Monsef to leave Canada and never come back following a tweet from 2013 when she commented on Sharia law.

Monsef didn't want to comment for this story.

But Fusco publicly asked Skinner on Twitter to address some of those comments - and to her knowledge, Skinner hasn't responded.

Fusco, who describes herself on her bio as an "opinionated Liberal," says her tweeted opinions are hers alone - she's not working for anybody's campaign.

She tweeted the limo photos after being "targeted" on Facebook by people identifying themselves as Skinner's friends, she stated in an interview conducted via private Twitter message.

"I suspected there was a deliberate effort to silence me," she wrote.

Fusco then went looking in the friends' public profiles to see whether anything had been written about her when she found the photos.

She tweeted the photos because she thinks they're "relevant" to any discussion of Skinner's leadership abilities, she stated.

"My issue was seeing a business leader allowing what appears to have been illegal drug use at a staff gathering," Fusco wrote.

Some of the men at the limo party were employees of The Rooster bar on Simcoe Street, Skinner said in an interview Wednesday.

He said his software company, Operitel, was an investor in The Rooster and The Second Floor Lounge (a bar on the upper level of the same building).

Operitel bought out all other shareholders in The Rooster in 2008, Skinner said, and then sold the bar in 2010.

But Skinner said he wasn't an employee of The Rooster or the boss there when the photos were taken; he was running Operitel.

Skinner said he has also owned The Red Dog (from 2008 to 2010) and Dolce Vita (2014 to 2016).

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Today he owns only The Venue on George Street (he bought the building in 2007, which was then called Vibe; he renovated and reopened it in late 2010 as The Venue).

Meanwhile Fusco also tweeted a photo of a 2011 party called "Got Ass?" at The Venue, showing a photo of a woman in a thong.

She stated that she thinks it's "relevant" to point out that Skinner has had parties in his bar "based on a theme of human trafficking."

Skinner wrote in an email to The Examiner that "Got Ass?" was organized by an outside promoter and was also held at other locations across Canada, including the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

He said he doesn't discriminate against anyone who wants to rent the space if they follow the law and liquor licence rules.

All the candidates running against Skinner in the election were asked what they thought about the photos.

Monsef and Green party candidate Andrew MacGregor both declined when asked to comment.

People's Party of Canada candidate Alex Murphy said Skinner is "an honest, decent and hardworking man" and that the posting of the photos is a weak attempt at character assassination.

NDP candidate Candace Shaw said it's normal for a young man to be out with friends.

"A couple of buddies celebrating - it doesn't seem like a thing to me," she said. "If that's the worst that comes out about any of us, we're a pretty tame crew."

joelle.kovach

@peterboroughdaily.com