`I'm in it to win it,' says ex-Liberal candidate Throness
Laurie Throness, the Chilliwack politician who stepped down Thursday from the B.C. Liberal Party after his latest controversial comments, says he will sit as an independent if elected, since his name is still on the ballot.
In a statement on Facebook, Throness apologized Friday for the damage done to his MLA colleagues and to B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson.
He said Chilliwack voters “deserve a viable small `c' conservative MLA who is unafraid of the freedoms of speech and religion, who embraces the thousands of social conservatives in this riding as well as social liberals, and who advocates for free-market and affordable government solutions to public policy issues.”
He said he will inform voters that if they vote for him he will sit as an independent MLA.
“I'm in it to win it,” he said. Throness's name will remain on the ballot in Chilliwack-Kent and listed under the B.C. Liberals, since the deadline for candidate registrations has passed.
During a virtual all-candidates meeting in his constituency Wednesday, Throness said he didn't feel free prescription contraception, as promised by the NDP, was a priority.
“The other thing that I feel about this is that it contains a whiff of the old eugenics thing where, you know, poor people shouldn't have babies,” he said.
“So, we can't force them to have contraception, so we'll give it to them for free, and maybe they'll have fewer babies, so there will be fewer poor people in the future.”
Throness has also been criticized for advertising in a religious publication considered homophobic and transphobic by the LGBTQ community, for appearing to support the condemned practice of so-called conversion therapy, and for appearing at anti-abortion rallies.