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From what Sahota posted, it’s not clear the context of the comment or whom he was referring to as a “fag,” but the word is widely considered to be a highly derogatory term for gay people.

Khanna, a former Conservative backroom organizer and law school graduate, responded within an hour. Only a day earlier, another Conservative candidate had resigned because of “discriminatory” online comments about Islam and certain ethnic groups.

“I deeply regret the offensive language I used when I was a teenager,” Khanna wrote on Twitter. “I have come to understand that creating safer and more inclusive spaces LGBTQ+ people in Canada happens in our homes, workplaces, on social media, and in the conversations we have every day. I apologize unequivocally.”

The candidate’s Linked-In page indicates he was in the midst of an undergraduate degree at Western University and was vice president of “election readiness” for the Western Conservatives at the time of the Tweet.

He began working a year later as a “community outreach advisor” for the Ontario Tories, and went on to fill various roles with the provincial party and the Harper government. Khanna managed then defence minister Jason Kenney’s Toronto office in 2015, the Linked-In post says.

The candidate declined to comment any further, referring back to the statement.

Sahota suggested the apology was not enough.

“Tonight, @andrewscheer is door-knocking with another candidate who thinks hateful words have a place in (Canada),” the MP for Brampton North said. “Scheer promised to show the door to any intolerant Conservative. Will he?”