Only three days after he won his party's nomination in a suburban Vancouver riding, a Conservative candidate says he has been forced to resign.
Dale Saip, elected Tory candidate for Delta-Richmond East on Monday, said Thursday that financial problems from his past were disclosed to the party before he was chosen.
But after it was made public on Wednesday that he had twice sought creditor protection, he said party officials told him he had to step down.
"It was decided that probably I was too much of a distraction for the things that the Conservative Party wanted to get done out here right now with an election pending. So, I won't be running," Saip said.
"They asked me if I wanted to step down, and I said 'Let me get back to you,' and then I got a letter saying that I was out.
"It wasn't my decision."
Saip said he received the party's decision in a letter from Ottawa. He said he accepts the vetting process, but wishes it was all handled before he won the nomination.
He called the fiasco "humiliating."
"I don't think it's fair to the people that worked very hard for me," he said. "We were an underdog in this thing and we came up from behind and made it happen, and subsequently these people are going to be very disappointed, as am I."
The Delta School Board chairman beat four other candidates to replace outgoing MP John Cummins.
The ouster comes just one day before the Tories are expected to be thrown into a federal election.
