[markbarbera]

Wow. The Conservative Keystone Kops Campaign dips to a new low today:

Tory communications boss suspended for attack on slain soldier's dad

September 11, 2008
Bruce Campion-Smith
Torstar News Service

OTTAWA— The Conservatives have suspended their director of communications for suggesting that a father of a slain soldier spoke out on Canada's Afghan mission because he is a Liberal supporter.

Party spokesperson Ryan Sparrow has been sidelined for the duration of the campaign, grim-faced Conservatives announced this morning.

Jim Davis, whose son Cpl. Paul Davis was killed in 2006, appeared on CTV News this morning to raise concerns about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's newly announced commitment to withdraw troops by 2011.

"I would never want to see another soldier go in harm's way so I can justify my son's death," Davis said during the interview. "But at the same time if we pull up stakes and come home when we're not ready to – when the mission is not complete – if we did that then my son died in vain."

CTV reporter Tom Clark asked the prime minister about the comments at a morning scrum in Montreal.

Within 15 minutes, he received an e-mail from Sparrow saying that the father was a supporter of Michael Ignatieff, an incumbent Liberal candidate in the Toronto riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore and former leadership contender.

By noon, Sparrow was off the campaign as the Conservatives moved quickly to dampen any controversy caused by the e-mail.

In a Montreal-area speech this afternoon, Harper called the e-mail "inappropriate" and said that Sparrow had already called the father to apologize.

Harper said he has set a "tone and expectation" for the Conservative that he expects will be followed "all the way to victory."

Sharon Davis, 56, said from her home in Bridgewater, N.S., the suggestion that her husband's criticism of Harper's announcement was politically motivated is "despicable."

She said the couple have been long-time volunteers for the Nova Scotia wing of the federal Liberal party and supported Ignatieff during his leadership campaign.

She said Jim Davis also served as vice-president of the provincial wing for six years in the late 1990s, but he has always kept his views about the war in Afghanistan separate from his support for the party.

"It's despicable, really. That had nothing to do with why Jim agreed to the interviews – absolutely nothing to do with it," she said. "This is a very personal thing and it's something that Jim has been fighting all along. He's always believed in this mission. Paul believed in the mission and so this isn't new and this had nothing to do with politics or Michael Ignatieff or the election."

Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton earlier sought to distance Harper and the party from the public relations disaster unfolding on Day 5 of the campaign.

"When a family suffers a terrible loss like a member of their family, it's an unspeakable human tragedy and one is scarred for life and you should never let politics enter into it," said LeBreton, who suffered when her own tragedy when her daughter and grandson were killed by a drunk driver 13 years ago.

"My advice to all people in all political parties is that before you open your mouth and say something, let it process through your brain," she said.

It's the second serious misstep for the Conservatives in the campaign's first week. Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was forced to apologize after a Conservative website showed the image of a puffin defecating on a picture of Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion.