A Toronto businessman who ran for parliament with Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s party is out of the race, after being caught on video urinating into a coffee cup.

The news about Jerry Bance, who was filmed while working as an appliance repairman, capped a bad week for Harper, who faces re-election as Canada has entered a recession.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation used hidden cameras in 2012 to record Bance peeing into the cup and pouring it down the sink while on a service call. The homeowner was in the next room.

Bance runs an appliance repair company; the CBC was reporting on home repair companies.

Bance had been running in a Toronto district in the 19 October election, but a Conservative party spokesman said on Monday: “Mr Bance is no longer a candidate.”

Bance said in a statement he “deeply regrets” the incident and it does not reflect who he is as person or professional.

The opposition New Democrat leader, Tom Mulcair, did not miss a chance to mock Bance and the Conservatives.

“He must be someone who is adept at Stephen Harper’s trickle-down theory of economics,” Mulcair said.

Separately CBC reported the Conservative campaign dropped a second Toronto candidate, Tim Dutaud, after he was identified in YouTube videos making prank calls and mocking people with disabilities.

“What this says is we keep the highest standards for candidates and these two individuals are no longer candidates,” the Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, told reporters while campaigning in Ontario.

Last week a government agency announced Canada recorded its second straight quarter of economic contraction, meeting economists’ definition of a recession.

Harper’s government has been criticised for not doing enough for Syrian refugees amid the migrant crisis overseas.