Maclean’s confirmed it misattributed views to former Alberta United Conservative Party candidate Caylan Ford (Calgary-Mountain View) in a cover story it did about Premier Danielle Smith. “That section of the article has been removed,” said Maclean’s in a statement. “Maclean’s apologizes to Ms. Ford for any harm suffered by her from the now-retracted section of the article.”Ford was regarded as the Alberta UCP’s star candidate in the 2019 election, who was talked into running in Calgary-Mountain View by former premier Jason Kenney. READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: How a Conservative candidate worked with the NDP to bring down star UCP candidateAlbertan political operative Karim Jivraj destroyed her candidacy by planting false stories about her in Press Progress. Edited parts of private philosophical conversations involving her were given to Press Progress, with media claiming she was a white supremacist or white nationalist. She said the messages contained edited snippets of conversations she was having with a trusted friend, but she could not defend herself and was forced to step down as a candidate.Maclean’s journalist Luc Rinaldi acknowledged when the story came out on September 14 Smith waltzed into the culture wars with her radio show. “Whatever her own social views, the staunchly libertarian Smith has complained about the hazards of cancel culture and the supposed silencing of conservative voices in mainstream media,” said Rinaldi. “Among hundreds of guests, she welcomed John Carpay, a lawyer who compared rainbow flags to swastikas; Tom Quiggin, an Islamophobic former RCMP officer; and Caylan Ford, a former MLA candidate who subscribed to the far-right myth that elites are systematically replacing white North Americans and Europeans with immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.” Ford said she brought the defamation to the attention of Maclean’s legal department, which investigated it and offered to issue a retraction and apology. “I’m pleased Maclean’s was quick to recognize that they had aired a mischaracterization,” she said. “I’m happy that we were able to reach a speedy resolution.”
