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Top Tory campaign official suspended over latest gaffe

Canadian Press Article online since September 10th 2008, 23:00
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OTTAWA - The latest blunder in the gaffe-prone Harper campaign has cost the Conservatives their communications director.
The party moved swiftly Thursday to suspend Ryan Sparrow over a partisan swipe at a dead soldier's dad.
Sparrow was disciplined for implying that Jim Davis's criticism of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was politically motivated.
Davis, who lost a son in Afghanistan, had complained that Harper's surprise announcement Wednesday that all Canadian troops will be out of Afghan mission in 2011 was "irresponsible."
He said his son will have died in vain if Canada pulls its troops out of the country before the mission is complete.
In an email to a reporter, Sparrow noted that Davis was a supporter of deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. The inference was that Davis was complaining because he was a Liberal.
Harper spokesman Kory Teneycke said the email was "not appropriate." He said Sparrow had been suspended for the duration of the election campaign and ordered to apologize.
Harper deftly tried to turn the controversy to his favour, saying the suspension demonstrates the high standards of behaviour he demands.
"I want to make it very clear that I have set a tone and I have set an expectation for this campaign and as leader, I am going to make sure that that is followed all the way to victory," Harper said.
It's the fourth time in the first five days of the young campaign that Harper has had to deal with controversy:
-After threatening to boycott the leaders debate if Green Leader Elizabeth May was allowed to participate, Harper flip-flopped amid public outrage.
-Harper was forced to apologize for a sophomoric Tory website ad showing a bird pooping on Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.
-The Conservatives were forced to admit that a Halifax candidate resigned after it was learned she had a criminal record.
The Liberals jumped on the latest controversy, saying a series of "flip-flops, gaffes and misinformed attacks" have left Harper's campaign in disarray.
Dion said the suspension doesn't go far enough and called for Sparrow to be fired.
"Suspending and not firing Mr. Sparrow outright is a sad attempt to brush this under the rug," he said.
"No wonder the prime minister promised a nasty campaign - his staffers are impugning the motives of a grieving father. It doesn't get any dirtier than that."
However, Sparrow got some support from an unlikely source - the man he insulted.
Davis, speaking from his home in Bridgewater, N.S., said he doesn't think Sparrow should be punished.
"Ryan called me to apologize and I thought he was a big man and I feel for him . . . I accepted his apology and I hope there are no consequences against him. It was just the heat of the moment. I forgive him."
"Suspend him? That's politics. That's being ridiculous."
Davis, whose son Cpl. Paul Davis died in a vehicle accident in March 2006, said his criticism of Harper had nothing to do with politics.
"I would never ever politicize my son's death or any soldier's death. I'm speaking as a father," he said.
He added that he doesn't oppose ending the Afghan mission.
"Nobody wants our soldiers there in Afghanistan. But I'm opposed to the fact that they may come home too soon."
"I'm opposed to saying publicly making it a definite that we are pulling out. That's a very dangerous and risky thing to do."
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