B.C. Green candidate apologizes for imitating Martin Luther King in campaign speech

A B.C. Green Party candidate has apologized for an enthusiastic, if ill-conceived campaign speech where he imitated Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “Mountaintop” speech.

At a rally in Victoria on Wednesday, Mark Neufeld, the B.C. Green Party candidate for Saanich South, talked about how he “went to the mountaintop, y’all,” mimicking King’s distinct vocal cadence.

“I went to Pkols, y’all,” he said, referencing the Indigenous name for Mount Douglas.

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Greens!” he shouted to the crowd.

Neufeld was referencing King’s famous Mountaintop speech, which he delivered the day before he was assassinated in April 1968.

In the speech, King alludes to threats on his life, saying, “I’m not fearing any man.”

Neufeld used similar words in his speech.

“‘I’m not fearing anyone. I went to Pkols yesterday. I went to the mountaintop and I looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land.”

Neufeld apologized in a Facebook post, calling the speech “one of the greatest mistakes of my life.”

“It was my intention to honour one of my heroes and instead, I was deeply insensitive,” he wrote. “It was a stunning lack of awareness to think that I could somehow honour Dr. King in this way. Instead of honouring him and his work, I hurt many people.”