The Hook

As expected, York Regional Councillor Gordon Landon has withdrawn his candidacy for the Markham-Unionville Tory nomination after being unduly frank about where stimulus funding is going.

As The Hook noted last week, Landon said on TV that federal money wouldn't go to Markham until it voted Conservative.

On a local news site, Landon withdrew from the race and tried to present his views from a different angle:

"My comments last week regarding an ongoing local economic initiative in Markham were interpreted as my suggesting that federal stimulus spending across the country has not been allocated fairly," Mr. Landon said.

"I was very disappointed to see these comments used for partisan gain against the Conservative Party, and I regret that these distortions have deflected attention away from the important work the Conservative Party is doing on behalf of all Canadians.

"The facts on this matter are however, quite clear," Mr. Landon added. "The Town of Markham applied for financial stimulus funds for 14 projects, and each of those 14 projects were approved for joint federal and provincial stimulus support. The remarks I made last week were critical of the inadequate representation, and lack of personal action, received by Markham-Unionville from the Liberal MP in this riding, and not of the federal government."

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.