A Liberal candidate crashed an NDP election campaign event at a coffee shop in the riding of Etobicoke North on Monday.
The riding, where Doug Ford is running, currently belongs to Liberal Shafiq Qaadri, who has represented it on the back benches since 2003.
Qaadri, with multiple people accompanying him and carrying a big Liberal sign, fell in behind where NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was speaking at the press conference and shouted that he and the leader share a common goal against Ford.
When asked to comment on the situation by a reporter, Horwath called it “unfortunate.”
“I mean, what am I going to say? I think it’s their decision to behave that way and they’ll have to explain for themselves,” she said.
“Shafiq, if you don’t mind, I’m going to finish my press conference and then you can have all the time you want to talk to the media, but please don’t interrupt me,” Horwath said when Qaadri continued to comment. “It’s very rude.”
After the event was over, Qaadri denied to reporters that Liberals sent him to the event to interrupt and that it was purely spontaneous.
“It wasn’t pre-planned. We didn’t have any advance notice of this,” he said, adding he was at a corner on the street near the shop doing waves.
“I was actually going to pose in front of the [NDP] bus for photographs and then I realized all you folks were right here in my riding.”
Qaadri said he was trying to be “civilized about it” and that he was trying to just walk in quietly when staffers blocked his view.
“I wasn’t trying to provoke an interruption.”
Liberal campaign co-chair David Herle tweeted later Monday that he spoke to the NDP campaign and “sincerely apologized” for Qaadri’s disruption.
Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne called Qaadri’s actions inappropriate.
“He shouldn’t have done that,” she said.
Ontarians head to the polls June 7.
—With files from The Canadian Press
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