Candidates' gaffes start to add up after 3 weeks of campaigning

Every federal election campaign counts its share of candidates who land their party in hot water for some reason or anotherand so far,Canada'slongest campaign in modern history is no different.

After three weeks of campaigning, several candidates are no longer running after comments they made over social media havecomeback to haunt them.

Others have switched allegiances afterembarrassingtheir party, while othersstill have the confidence of their party despite a fauxpas.

Here are some examples ofmistakes made by candidates inthiselection campaign.

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The Conservatives and Liberals both lost a candidate last week after improper comments they made online in years past came back to hurt them.

GillesGuibordis no longer running as a Conservative candidate in Montreal after abloggerdug up sexist and racist comments he made in the comments section of various newspapers.Ala Buzreba, aLiberal candidatein Calgary, decided to pull out of the race hours after she apologized for offensive comments she made on social media when she was a teenager.

The Green Party was also caught off guard by a candidate whodecided to back the New Democrats.

The Green party'sPeterborough-KawarthaElectoral District Association in Ontario said on Monday it will notsupport Gary Beamish's decision to withdraw and endorse the NDP nominee.

The association apologizedfor any confusion Beamish's move may have caused supporters in the central Ontario riding and saidit is considering options and plans to discuss the next steps with local members.

The newspaper Peterborough This Week recently reported that Beamish was planning to drop out of the race after being formally nominated.The paper said he would advise constituents to vote for the NDP candidate instead of splitting the vote by supporting him.

While the Green Partymay have lost a candidate, italso gained one after the NDP'sJose Nunez-Melobecame embroiled in a dispute with the party and crossedover to the Greens instead.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Nunez-Melowill run under the Green banner in the new suburban Montreal riding of Vimy.

Liberal candidate broke spending laws

A Liberal candidate admitted he broke election spending laws during his fight to win a bitterly contested nomination battle in the Toronto-area riding of Mississauga-Lakeshore.

In a compliance agreement struck with the commissioner of elections, Sven Spengemann admitedhe personally paid for some campaign expenses, which legally should have been paid only by his financial agent.

Spengemann admittedhe wound up donating $4,255 to his own nomination campaign almost twice the legal limit of $2,200.

Under the terms of the compliance agreement, published in the Canada Gazette last week, Spengemann has agreed to solicit legal contributions to cover his excess donation and to pay that money to the receiver general.

He has also agreedto file with Elections Canada an updated nomination financial return, reflecting all his campaign expenses and contributions.

A compliance agreement is a commonly used method of dealing with infractions of election laws; it does not constitute a criminal conviction or create a criminal record.

Elections commissioner Yves Cote's office investigated Spengemann's nomination expenses after receiving a complaint from Paul Szabo, the former Liberal MP for the riding who had backed a rival candidate for the nomination.

Szabo said allowing Spengemann to sign a compliance agreement makes a mockery of Canada's election laws.

"By not declaring the expenses he gave himself an unfair advantage over other candidates and he only won by 19 votes," Szabo said.

He urged Spengemann to "do the honourable thing" and step aside as the candidate. He noted that other candidates have stepped aside for lesser offences, including inappropriate tweets posted years ago.

TheNDP'sofficial candidatein the Nova Scotia riding ofKings-Hantsresigned aftercontroversial comments he allegedly made about the Middle East on Facebook appeared as a screen grab being circulated by the Conservative Party.

MorganWheeldonsaidhe wasthe victim of a "shamefuland dishonest" smear campaign and that the excerpt circulated on social media was taken out of context.

The Conservative candidate in theMontreal riding of Ahuntsic-Cartierville,WiliamMoughrabi, came under scrutinythis week after some sexist and violent postshe'd made to his Facebook account before he became a candidatecame to light. He deleted the posts and closed his Facebook account.

Linda McQuaig, one of the NDP'smore prominent candidates, stirred up controversy after saying on a CBC Power & Politics panel that forCanada to meet its climate change targets, "a lot of the oilsands oil may have to stay in the ground."

There are 54 more days of campaigning to go.