Kingston Liberal candidate caught trading insults with resident: 'You're pathetic'
Gerretsen was caught on camera in a brief but testy 12-second interaction, recorded on a doorbell camera
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KINGSTON — Liberal candidate Mark Gerretsen said he regretted responding to a resident who insulted him earlier this month.
Gerretsen was caught on camera in a brief but testy 12-second interaction, recorded on a doorbell camera and posted to social media, which started innocently enough when Gerretsen knocked on a door and a male resident opened.
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“Hi how are you? I’m Mark Gerretsen, I’m your member of Parliament,” the incumbent began while canvassing door to door.
“Yeah man, not a chance,” the resident replied.
“Okay, cool,” Gerretsen said as he began to walk down the stairs.
“You’re against gun owners, you’re pathetic,” the resident said.
“You’re pathetic,” Gerretsen appeared to reply as he left.
Since being posted, the video has been share 1,300 times and attracted 2,600 comments.
In an interview Monday, Gerretsen said he should not have engaged in the back and forth.
I regret doing that because I realized it’s not productive and it doesn’t help anything, but my emotions just got the better of me,” he said.
“I obviously shouldn’t have done that. I kind of realized it right away, right afterwards, it wasn’t the right thing to do.
“Ninety-nine-per-cent of the time I just smile and walk away, like I actually started to in that video,” he said. “I don’t know, something just got the better of me. My emotions just kind of didn’t react well to being called that so I just kind of hurled it back.”
Election candidates and campaign volunteers have changed their habits since doorbell cameras that record video and audio have become commonplace.
“This is amongst the worst, in any campaign that I’ve been in, in terms of hostility and people throwing insults and stuff like that, this is certainly the worst that I’ve ever (seen) in any campaign that I’ve ever been in,” he said.
“People are riled up on both sides.”
elferguson@postmedia.com
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