Conservative MP Rob Anders rises in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Wednesday September 26, 2012. A maverick Conservative MP has run afoul of the Prime Minister's Office for suggesting that NDP Leader Tom Mulcair helped to hasten the death of predecessor Jack Layton. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
October 01, 2012 - 12:37 PM
OTTAWA - A maverick Conservative MP has run afoul of the Prime Minister's Office for suggesting that NDP Leader Tom Mulcair helped to hasten the death of predecessor Jack Layton.
Calgary MP Rob Anders told the political news website iPolitics that Mulcair essentially goaded his predecessor into risking his health during the 2011 election campaign.
The PMO was quick to distance itself from the remarks, saying they in no way represent the views of Stephen Harper or the government.
Anders says Layton overstressed his delicate health during the campaign, which might have hastened his death just months later.
Anders says Mulcair argued before the campaign that Layton should step aside because of his health.
He says this "arm-twisting" compelled Layton to "put his life at risk" in a hard-fought election campaign, when otherwise he might have been more heedful of his health.
"I actually think one of the great stories that was missed by journalists was that Mr. Mulcair, with his arm twisted behind the scenes, helped to hasten Jack Layton’s death," Anders is quoted by iPolitics as saying.
"It was very clear to me watching the two of those gentlemen in the front benches, that Jack Layton was ill and that Mr. Mulcair was making it quite obvious that if Jack wasn’t well enough to fight the campaign and fight the election that he should step aside, and that because of that, Mr. Layton put his life at risk to go into the national election, and fight it, and did obviously an amazing job considering his state of health, and that he did that partly because of the arm-twisting behind the scenes by Mulcair and then subsequently died."
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012