‘No Excuse’: Doerkson Fires Conservative Candidate

BC Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson fired the party’s candidate in Victoria-Beacon Hill shortly after learning about social media posts the BC NDP flagged as racist.

"There is no excuse for this,” Doerkson said in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon. “I will not tolerate it. The candidate in Victoria-Beacon Hill is no longer a Conservative candidate. If elected, he will not serve in the Caucus."

Less than two hours earlier the NDP had drawn attention to three posts made by the candidate, Joachim Agou.

In one from Sept. 7, 2025, Agou responded to a clip of a car running into a pro-Palestinian rally in Lausanne, Switzerland. “Il aurait du faire une marche arrière aussi,” he wrote in French, which translates as “He should have reversed too.”

A post from June 26, 2025, shared a meme of U.S. President Donald Trump on an airplane with the text “Trump: My God, Pakistan looks like a shithole!” and the response “That’s London Mr. President.”

And on Nov. 6, 2024, Agou added emojis with raised hands and a happy face when he reposted a “Make the West Great Again” post that featured Trump and trillionaire Elon Musk alongside several far-right European leaders.

The European leaders included Geert Wilders from the Netherlands, Marine Le Pen from France, Viktor Orban in Hungary, André Ventura from Portugal and Santiago Abascal in Spain.

In a post on X, the NDP candidate Amna Shah, who is the incumbent MLA in Surrey City Centre, called Agou’s posts “Absolutely horrific racism” and called on Doerkson to fire him.

Doerkson was first asked about the posts this morning during a news conference in Surrey where he promised to raise the personal income tax exemption so that anyone in the province who makes at least $40,000 a year would save $1,000 in taxes.

After a reporter described Agou’s posts, Doerkson said, “I of course would never support that.”

“The reality is I have not seen these posts or these allegations and trust me when I say this, I’ll be looking at them the second I leave this podium,” he said as the news conference closed.

Shortly after that came the statement saying Agou would no longer be a BC Conservative candidate.

Agou did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shah said Agou’s “very racist, hateful remarks” raise questions for British Columbians. “Why was this individual allowed to run for the BC Conservatives? Why was he not vetted? Why did they allow this individual to have such hateful views to thrive in their party?”

As an MLA for the past two years she has seen BC Conservative members of the legislature “harbour and flirt with some very right wing hateful ideologies and rhetoric,” she said. “We know there are still candidates within the BC Conservative Party that share some very concerning views, so there is more to do for Lorne Doerkson to stand up and not allow that type of hate to exist.”

Spencer Chandra Herbert, the MLA for Vancouver-West End, said there are still Conservative candidates running who are openly homophobic, anti-science and anti-vaccine.

“He has a responsibility as a leader,” Chandra Herbert said. “He did the bare minimum today... It’s a double standard in my view when you can see him stand with open homophobes. It’s just not right.”

Chandra Herbert also criticized the Conservatives’ tax cut announcement saying it would blow a $2.5-billion hole in the provincial budget.

“Mr. Doerkson’s trying to have it both ways saying he’s going to cut taxes yet he’s going to somehow increase revenue,” he said, adding that it would lead to cuts to health care. “You can’t cut taxes — cut, cut, cut rewarding millionaires — and at the same time claim you’re going to increase spending. British Columbians understand math. That dollar has to come from somewhere.”

Final voting day is Oct. 24 and the campaign’s only televised debate among party leaders is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday.