Surrendering to pressure from the Liberal elites will only encourage more pressure. They can never be appeased.

Salim Mansur is a devout Canadian Muslim who has courageously spoke out against radical Islamism.

Mansur is a highly-respected professor, and has even been invited by Conservatives to testify on Parliament Hill about the threat of radical Islamism.

Mansur won the nomination to be the Conservative candidate in the riding of London North-Centre.

However, the Conservative Party has since disqualified him from running – without even letting party members in the area decide.

“I’m disappointed with CPC disallowing my candidacy, yet hopeful conservatives will persevere. I’ll have more to say about this & my role in 2019 election. Thanks to all for love & support. This setback won’t derail me to help rescue our Canada from Islamism & Globalism.”

He was told in an email that his candidacy was ‘disallowed.’

According to a report by Andrew Lawton for the True North Centre, “No reason was provided in the email, but Mansur told me in a brief interview that Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s campaign manager, Hamish Marshall, advised him last week of the party’s concerns with Mansur’s past writing and public speaking on Islamism and the politics of radical Muslims, which Marshall said will likely be portrayed by Liberals and others as Islamophobic, and become disruptive to the party’s national campaign.”

If that is the reason, it’s a disgrace.

The whole point of being a leader is having the ability to persuade people and push back against falsehoods. So, if the Liberals call Mansur ‘Islamophobic’ (which is obviously absurd considering that Mansur is himself Muslim), then Scheer should simply push back and say “Mansur is a proud Canadian-Muslim who is fighting against extremism and terrorism.”

Then, Scheer should put Trudeau on the defensive by saying “Justin Trudeau must answer for his association with people like Joshua Boyle, Trudeau must answer for his plan to let ISIS terrorists back into our country, and Trudeau must explain why the Liberals are attacking a courageous Canadian Muslim instead of fighting against the anti-LGBT, anti-women agenda of radical Islamists.”

It would be so easy to put the Liberals on the defensive and stand up for Mansur.

But instead, the Conservatives simply booted him.

It’s weakness, and that weakness will only encourage more attacks from the Liberals.

As Cosmin Dzsurdzsa wrote in the Post Millennial, “The Conservatives will be accused of Islamophobia either way. There really is no way around it. In fact, the Liberals will likely pull out their full arsenal of phobias to fling at Conservatives. This decision won’t mitigate the persistence or the frequency of such smears. It should be clear from the recent elections in Alberta and before that in Ontario, that the left will invent reasons to accuse their opponents of all sorts of vile things if they can’t find any readily available. For the CPC to think that this might save them a headache is just naivete or self-delusion.”

This move sends a dangerous message to brave Canadian Muslims who are speaking out against extremism. If even Canada’s top Conservative party won’t stand up for them, then who will?

It’s demoralizing for the Conservative Base, and it’s a massive mistake.

It also creates an opening for People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier.

While Bernier has been struggling in the polls as his party gets off the ground, the Conservatives’ rejection of Mansur plays exactly into what he’s been saying about some Conservatives being far too willing to bow down to Liberal-style political correctness.

Here’s what Bernier said on Twitter:

“The Tories have rejected the candidacy of highly respected Prof. @SalimMansurLNC, a critic of islamism, for fear of being called islamophobic by Liberals. Can you trust Andrew Scheer to defend Canadian values? Is he willing to do *anything* to gain power?”

There will certainly be some justifiably-angry Conservatives who will consider the People’s Party more now because of the brutal error of getting rid of Mansur.

The Conservatives under Scheer have gotten many things right, particularly their willingness to confront Communist China, build up our military, and reverse Trudeau’s destructive and unity-destroying economic policies.

That said, their lack of toughness and fear of attacks led them to meekly surrender to the Liberals and remove Mansur and that mistake could cost them votes at Election time.

Canada needs people like Salim Mansur in our political leadership.

As a result, the decision must be reversed, and the Conservatives need to adopt the attitude of simply focusing all their attacks and attention on Trudeau’s pathetic and dangerous failures, rather than surrendering to the sickness of political correctness.

Spencer Fernando