Canada’s prime minister suspended a top ruling party official on Thursday for suggesting a father who lost his soldier son in Afghanistan had political motives in criticizing the newly announced plan for withdrawing Canadian troops in 2011.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said communications director Ryan Sparrow wrote an e-mail to a journalist in which he implied the man was criticizing Harper’s decision as a way to help the opposition Liberal Party in next month’s parliamentary elections.
Jim Davis, who lost a son in Afghanistan, complained earlier on Thursday that the withdrawal plan was irresponsible.
He said his son would have died in vain if Canada pulls its troops out of Afghanistan before that country is stabilized.
“I want to make it very clear that I have set a tone and I have set an expectation for this campaign and its leader and I’m going to make sure that that is followed all the way to victory,” Harper said after officials announced Sparrow’s suspension.
In his e-mail, Sparrow said Davis was a supporter of deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, implying Davis was complaining only because he was a Liberal.
“My skin is fairly thick but it stung me and shocked me and took me by surprise because that’s nowhere near the truth at all,” Davis said in a phone interview from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
Davis said he is a Liberal, but his affiliation “has nothing to do” with his views on Afghanistan. “I can be just as critical of my own leader as I can with Mr Harper.”
Davis said Sparrow was reckless, but he accepted the apology when Sparrow called.
He said he was upset later when he heard that Sparrow was ordered to apologize, but he did not think Sparrow should be fired.
“I don’t wish anybody undue hardship because of my son’s death,” Davis said. “It was an attack at me personally, but I accept his apology.”
The Liberals supported a move by Parliament to extend Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan to 2011, provided the troops left the dangerous southern province of Kandahar after that. Parliament’s extension did not set a deadline for a full withdrawal, but Harper announced on Wednesday that the troops would leave in 2011.
Liberal leader Stephane Dion called for Sparrow to be fired.
“Playing politics with a father who is suffering from such a tragic loss is simply unacceptable,” Dion said in a statement. “Suspending, and not firing Mr Sparrow outright, is a sad attempt to brush this under the rug.”
Harper spokesman Kory Teneycke also apologized to journalists in Quebec on Thursday after Harper spokeswoman Carolyn Stewart Olsen ordered the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to keep journalists away from Harper so they couldn’t ask him a question about Sparrow’s suspension.
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