OTTAWA—A candidate to head Canada's opposition Liberal Party vowed on Monday to stay in the leadership race despite reports that his campaign team had signed up dead people as members.
Joe Volpe, who also hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in May after it emerged he had accepted large donations from children, acknowledged errors could have been made in "the hurly burly of recruitment" of members.
"I'm staying in the race to win the leadership," Volpe told a news conference, lashing out at better-placed rivals who, he said, wanted him to quit because he was Italian-born.
Polls show Volpe has no chance of winning.
The Toronto Star said Volpe's team had signed up at least nine people and paid their membership fees without their knowledge. Two of the nine names were of people who were dead.
The more members a candidate signs up, the more delegates they can send to the Liberal leadership convention in early December.
After the news conference ended, Volpe was confronted by two protesters dressed in white sheets and holding a sign saying "Volpe has spirits." The duo, who followed him to a parliamentary building, declined to say who they worked for.
Volpe was embarrassed in May when it emerged that a pair of 11-year-old twins and their 14-year-old brother—who were related to a major donor— had each donated C$5,400 to his leadership campaign. He later returned the money.
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