Globe and Mail Update September 11, 2008 at 12:57 PM EDT MONTREAL —
Senior Conservative Party spokesman Ryan Sparrow has been suspended from the campaign after suggesting the father of a slain soldier who criticized
Stephen Harper today was a Liberal.
Mr. Sparrow sent an email to CTV News today suggesting that Jim Davis, the soldier's dad, is a supporter of Liberal Michael Ignatieff.
He has also been ordered to call Mr. Davis and apologize for his comments. Tory Senator Marjory LeBreton, a national campaign co-chair, said there's no excuse for Mr. Sparrow's behaviour.
"When a family suffers the loss of a loved one, it's a tragedy beyond belief ... and politics should never enter into it," she said. Ms. LeBreton said Mr. Davis' criticism today was justified comment. "It's entirely appropriate thing for him to say because he lost his son."
Mr. Harper was forced to defend his decision announced Wednesday to pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan in 2011 in the face of criticism from Mr. Davis, whose son Corporal Paul Davis died in Kandahar in March 2006.
He told CTV's Canada AM he was shocked by Mr. Harper's comments. He said his son will have died in vain if Canada withdraws before its mission is complete.
"I couldn't believe he would say something so irresponsible as that," Mr. Davis told CTV. Mr. Davis setting a deadline "undermines the work our soldiers are doing and it undermines the mission." CTV Washington bureau chief Tom Clark, who is reporting on the Tory campaign this week, said he received an email from Mr. Sparrow on Thursday after he raised Mr. Davis' criticism at a scrum with Mr. Harper. In the email, Mr. Sparrow said that Mr. Davis supported Mr. Ignatieff, a former Liberal leadership candidate. It also contained a link to a page on Mr. Ignatieff's website offering condolences on Mr. Davis' loss.
Mr. Harper said he "doesn't accept" the notion Cpl. Davis will have died in vain and said Canada is determined to pull out by 2011 because by that time it will have had soldiers deployed in the deadly province of Kandahar for six years.
"Six years in Kandahar? We were in World War II for six years. We've got to be able to get to the endpoint," he said.
"If we don't set end dates and we don't have targets the mission will go on forever … [and] we will end up being responsible for the ongoing management of Afghan security."
Another Harper spokesman Kory Teneycke said Mr. Sparrow has been suspended and ordered to apologize to Mr. Davis."Obviously, that's not appropriate. And he will be contacting the father directly to apologize and is being suspended immediately from the campaign, (for) the duration of the campaign."
It's the latest in a series of gaffes involving the Tory campaign.
The party has already had to backtrack three times this week: first after opposing the participation of Green Leader Elizabeth May in the leaders debates; then by editing an ad on its website showing a bird pooping on Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion; and then damping the flames after a Halifax candidate had to resign after it was learned she had a criminal record.
James Morton
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