Trickle-down economics? Canadian candidate quits after video shows him urinating in client’s coffee mug
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 08 September, 2015, 8:08am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 08 September, 2015, 8:12am
Reuters in Toronto
Jerry Bance was supposed to be fixing a leak. Instead, he was the one doing the leaking. Photo: YouTube/CBC
Two Canadian Conservative election candidates have dropped out after they were identified in embarrassing videos, including one who was caught on camera urinating into a coffee mug.
Jerry Bance had been a candidate for the ruling Conservatives in a Toronto-area district ahead of the October 19 vote.
CBC News reported that Bance, a service technician, had been caught on a hidden camera urinating into a customer’s coffee mug during a house call to repair a leaky sink in 2012.
Tim Dutaud as the "hilarious" prankster, the "Unicaller". Photo: YouTube
In a video of the incident, Bance is seen doing the repair work while the female householder waits in another room.
He takes coffee mug off a dishrack and apparently urinates into it, then pours the contents of the mug into the sink. He gives the mug a quick rinse with water before placing it back in the sink.
He was filmed during an episode of the network’s consumer watchdog program “Marketplace”, which was investigating whether homeowners were being overcharged for simple repairs.
His cup runneth over. Jerry Bance disposes of the evidence down the drain. Photo: YouTube/CBC
CBC said a tip on Sunday pointed out Bance was the technician in the story.
“Mr Bance is no longer a candidate,” Conservative spokesman Stephen Lecce said in a statement.
Bance could not immediately be reached for comment. But CBC said he issued a statement in which he expressed regret, adding the footage “does not reflect who I am as a professional or a person”.
Separately, CBC reported the Conservative campaign dropped a second Toronto candidate, Tim Dutaud, after he was identified in YouTube videos making prank calls and mocking people with disabilities. Using an alter ego "the Unicaller", Dutaud feigns a mental disability as he calls a highway complaint line, tagging the video "retarded" and "hilarious".
“What this says is we keep the highest standards for candidates and these two individuals are no longer candidates,” Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters while campaigning in Ontario.
The right-leaning Conservatives, who have ruled the country for nearly a decade, are in a tight three-way race with the center-left Liberals and New Democratic Party.
