He may have been forced out of the BC Liberal party’s leadership race, but that doesn’t mean Aaron Gunn is putting aside his political aspirations anytime soon..“It’s been a weird week,” Gunn told the Western Standard Thursday evening, just six days after the BC Liberals said thanks, but no thanks to his leadership bid..“We were excited. We were rolling, we had lots of momentum, we had a lot of back end data indicating we were going to win this thing or be very competitive and probably play a kingmaker role,” said the man, who vowed if elected to change the Liberal name to something more in common with the party’s conservative base..“And then we had the rug pulled out from under us, which we really did not expect.”.On October 22, party officials rejected Gunn’s application for the leadership of the BC Liberals, saying approval of his candidacy would clash with the Liberal party’s commitment to reconciliation, diversity and acceptance of all British Columbians..“I mean, what do you do in that circumstance,” asked Gunn..“And so there’s been a lot of thinking about what do we do next? We’re reloading and we’ll be back, that’s for sure.”.Gunn was branded as a transphobic and a racist, among a slew of unfounded accusations..“The ‘official’ explanation for why my candidacy was rejected — as communicated to me by the BC Liberal Party — was that I committed the unforgivable sin of refusing to call Canada a ‘genocidal’ state on three separate occasions over Twitter,” Gunn related to his followers soon after learning the Liberals rejected him..The 31-year-old said not acknowledging the word is ridiculous and irresponsible..“It’s allowing a very harmful mythology to take place about Canadian history,” said Gunn, who added that — from private conversations — many current BC Liberal MLAs agree with his position — along with the “vast majority” of conservatives and most historians..Liberal leadership candidate Michael Lee wrote on social media he welcomed the rejection of Gunn’s candidacy, while another leadership candidate and legislature member, Ellis Ross, said on Twitter the decision to bar Gunn should have been made by “the voting members of the B.C. Liberal Party.”.“This country has a lot of things it can be proud of (and) it has some parts of its history that it should not be proud of; mistakes that were made that can be learned from,” Gunn said..“The residential school or aspects of the residential school program are 100% part of that, but to call something a genocide …”.Gunn noted Canada recognizes only six genocides in the history of humanity, including the Holocaust and the Rwandan massacres..“And to compare those with what happened here in Canada, on that kind of level, is so colossally irresponsible.”.Gunn called it a low mark in politics..“We’re now at a point that begs the question: Is that the new litmus test for running for office in Canada, that you have to basically accuse your country of being a genocidal state?”.Gunn claims the Liberals have already lost members because he was shunned..“There’s lots of people who reached out that got memberships and were excited, (now) lots of people are forwarding e-mails of messages they sent to the BC Liberals saying ‘please tear up my membership.’”.Gunn said voters will hear from him again soon, but was vague on details..“One thing I will say for those who think this is the end, they couldn’t be more wrong — this is just the beginning, we’re just getting started,” he said, adding “there’s things happening behind the scenes.”.“We’re exploring a number of possibilities, not a ton, but there’s three or four different options we’re considering right now, but walking away from politics isn’t one of them.”.The BC Liberals are expected to choose their next party leader in 2022..Mike D’Amour is the British Columbia Bureau Chief for the Western Standard..,.mdamour@westernstandardonline.com
He may have been forced out of the BC Liberal party’s leadership race, but that doesn’t mean Aaron Gunn is putting aside his political aspirations anytime soon..“It’s been a weird week,” Gunn told the Western Standard Thursday evening, just six days after the BC Liberals said thanks, but no thanks to his leadership bid..“We were excited. We were rolling, we had lots of momentum, we had a lot of back end data indicating we were going to win this thing or be very competitive and probably play a kingmaker role,” said the man, who vowed if elected to change the Liberal name to something more in common with the party’s conservative base..“And then we had the rug pulled out from under us, which we really did not expect.”.On October 22, party officials rejected Gunn’s application for the leadership of the BC Liberals, saying approval of his candidacy would clash with the Liberal party’s commitment to reconciliation, diversity and acceptance of all British Columbians..“I mean, what do you do in that circumstance,” asked Gunn..“And so there’s been a lot of thinking about what do we do next? We’re reloading and we’ll be back, that’s for sure.”.Gunn was branded as a transphobic and a racist, among a slew of unfounded accusations..“The ‘official’ explanation for why my candidacy was rejected — as communicated to me by the BC Liberal Party — was that I committed the unforgivable sin of refusing to call Canada a ‘genocidal’ state on three separate occasions over Twitter,” Gunn related to his followers soon after learning the Liberals rejected him..The 31-year-old said not acknowledging the word is ridiculous and irresponsible..“It’s allowing a very harmful mythology to take place about Canadian history,” said Gunn, who added that — from private conversations — many current BC Liberal MLAs agree with his position — along with the “vast majority” of conservatives and most historians..Liberal leadership candidate Michael Lee wrote on social media he welcomed the rejection of Gunn’s candidacy, while another leadership candidate and legislature member, Ellis Ross, said on Twitter the decision to bar Gunn should have been made by “the voting members of the B.C. Liberal Party.”.“This country has a lot of things it can be proud of (and) it has some parts of its history that it should not be proud of; mistakes that were made that can be learned from,” Gunn said..“The residential school or aspects of the residential school program are 100% part of that, but to call something a genocide …”.Gunn noted Canada recognizes only six genocides in the history of humanity, including the Holocaust and the Rwandan massacres..“And to compare those with what happened here in Canada, on that kind of level, is so colossally irresponsible.”.Gunn called it a low mark in politics..“We’re now at a point that begs the question: Is that the new litmus test for running for office in Canada, that you have to basically accuse your country of being a genocidal state?”.Gunn claims the Liberals have already lost members because he was shunned..“There’s lots of people who reached out that got memberships and were excited, (now) lots of people are forwarding e-mails of messages they sent to the BC Liberals saying ‘please tear up my membership.’”.Gunn said voters will hear from him again soon, but was vague on details..“One thing I will say for those who think this is the end, they couldn’t be more wrong — this is just the beginning, we’re just getting started,” he said, adding “there’s things happening behind the scenes.”.“We’re exploring a number of possibilities, not a ton, but there’s three or four different options we’re considering right now, but walking away from politics isn’t one of them.”.The BC Liberals are expected to choose their next party leader in 2022..Mike D’Amour is the British Columbia Bureau Chief for the Western Standard..,.mdamour@westernstandardonline.com
