A potential MLA candidate is “undecided” if he will be running under a party banner or as an independent in the upcoming election after being ousted by the Freedom Conservative Party.
Clayton Knutson was running for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA with the Freedom Conservative Party (FCP) until recently, when the party reportedly asked him to resign due to hateful comments about Islam on Twitter along with a lack of financial statements.
However, Knutson says it had nothing to do with a “refusal to disclose personal and financial information.”
“They would love to say it was about refusal to disclose personal and financial info - however it 100 per cent is about not being able to criticize Islam and run under a party banner,” Knutson said.
In tweets, Knutson has called Islam a “bad religion” and calls Islamophobia a made up word, and thus “doesn’t exist.”
Islam is bad. Why is saying Islam is bad a bad thing? #abpoli #ableg #abvotes #ucp #fcp #abparty #ablib #abndp Prove to me Islam is good; the Koran proves Islam is bad, further proof - the Hadith! Cruel & Unusual punishment, bigamy, stoning adultresses, killing apostates, etc.! https://t.co/OPcjY3e3kD
— Clayton Knutson (@Clayton_Inn_SL) March 23, 2019
Knutson said in an interview that he believes Alberta should be able to control its own immigration laws, similar to what is done in Quebec.
He has also given his support to former UCP candidates Caylan Ford and Eva Kiryakos, should they run as independent candidates. Both Ford and Kiryakos have dropped out of the election race over social media posts which could be seen as Islamophobic and transphobic.
READ MORE: Social media comments continue to dog ranks of United Conservative candidates
As of March 25, the FCP have named Chad Miller the party’s candidate in the provincial election for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake.