Controversial candidate Brent Chapman wins Surrey South riding

Surrey South candidate Brent Chapman is seen in an image from his campaign's Facebook page.

A B.C. Conservative candidate election campaign was mired by controversies in the days before the provincial election has won the Surrey South riding.

The CTV News Decision Desk has declared that Brent Chapman has defeated NDP candidate Haroon Ghaffar. 

The Conservative candidate made headlines during the later stages of the campaign after offensive social media posts resurfaced one after another, prompting multiple apologies from Chapman.

In a November 2015 Facebook comment, shared in a screenshot by CKNW radio host Jas Johal, Chapman referred to Palestinians as “inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs.” Another showed him sharing an article on "Muslim inbreeding," along with concerns, which he attributed to an unnamed friend, that "coexistence with Islam" was “absolutely not” possible.

The posts prompted a number of Muslim groups to call for Chapman to withdraw from the race.

In a statement, the candidate said his comments were “completely unacceptable” and “do not reflect who I am today.”

Chapman was under fire again after Johal brought attention to a podcast appearance from last month wherein the host referred to the narrative around residential schools as a “massive fraud,” to which the candidate replied “I’m starting to feel like the people in Jonestown...either that or Charles Manson.”

Indigenous groups condemned the comments.

The controversies continued when Johal shared more screenshots, one from 2017 where Chapman casted doubt on official accounts of mass shootings in Canada and the U.S.

The candidate later wrote on social media that the mass shootings “were all very real” and that he meant to say the onslaught of media reports and commentary following the events “makes everything chaotic and confusing.”

He added he would no longer be commenting on his old social media posts as per advice from legal counsel.

Leader John Rustad, when pressed about Chapman and other candidates’ comments, stood by his nominees and said voters can judge them at the ballot box.

The verdict has come in from voters, who just elected Chapman as their next representative in the legislature.

The seat was previously held by Elenore Sturko, who defected from B.C. United back in June and ran as a Conservative in Surrey-Cloverdale.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Andrew Weichel