Stefan Jonasson, a New Democrat candidate in Charleswood–St. James–Assiniboia–Headingley, Winnipeg, decided to drop out of the federal election campaign after his comments, comparing ultra-Orthodox Jews to the Taliban, surfaced, The Global Mail reported.

Three years ago, Jonasson posted an article on social media accusing ultra-Orthodox Jews of mistreating women by segregating the sexes and compelling them to adhere to a strict dress code. He wrote that “much like the Taliban and other extremists, the Haredim offer a toxic caricature of faith at odds with the spirit of the religious tradition they profess to represent.”

The True North Times, a web site that has promised to expose controversial comments by nine politicians in nine days, exposed Jonasson.

Jonasson said that the allegation against him was an extreme distortion of his comments: “What I was arguing was that I thought the misogynistic position of this group … I was actually arguing that that is against the spirit of the religious tradition they profess,” he said, adding, “I care deeply about freedom, reason and tolerance in religion, but I also care deeply about the rights of women.”

Jonasson said he had been asked by the NDP to step down. “I wish that the party had had the courage and the foresight to believe that my candidacy was worth defending, but they did not,” Jonasson said Thursday, according to The Global Mail.

Jonasson is the latest in a string of political candidates whose campaigns in Canada have been threatened by their social media comments. CTV News reported that on Sept. 22, Alex Johnstone, an NDP candidate in the Hamilton area, apologizes for crude comments related to a photograph of Auschwitz she made on Facebook in 2008. She later told the Hamilton Spectator she did not know it was a notorious Nazi death camp.

On Sept. 19, Chantal St-Onge, a Bloc Quebecois candidate in the Montreal area, apologizes for a Facebook post she wrote in support of an event hosted by Pegida, a group that opposes the “Islamization” of Quebec.

On Sept. 16, the Liberals sent home their candidate for Sturgeon River-Parkland in Alberta, one Chris Austin, for “irreconcilable” comments. Austin’s Twitter account including his comment on a story about the CBC firing Jian Ghomeshi: “Will Canada Become A Fascists Dictatorship?”

On Sept. 10, Liberal Joy Davies running in the B.C. riding of South Surrey-White Rock, dropped out after her controversial Facebook posts about marijuana and cancer were exposed.

And on Sept. 7 the Conservatives severed their ties with Jerry Bance, running in Toronto’s Scarborough Rouge Park riding, after he was caught by the CBC on camera urinating into a coffee cup.