Canadian Conservative spokesman suspended

OTTAWA, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended his senior spokesman for implying the father of a slain soldier who criticized Harper was a Liberal.

Conservative spokesman Ryan Sparrow sent an e-mail to CTV News Thursday suggesting Jim Davis, father of Cpl. Paul Davis, who died in Kandahar Province in March 2006, supported Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal Party's deputy leader and a former leadership candidate.

Sparrow, suspended from the campaign ahead of the Oct. 14 federal election, was also ordered to call Davis and apologize for his comments, another Conservative spokesman told The Globe and Mail.

Davis had criticized Harper's Wednesday promise to pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan by 2011.

Speaking on CTV's "Canada AM" program, Davis said his son's death would be in vain if Canada withdraws before its mission is completed.

Setting a deadline "undermines the work our soldiers are doing and it undermines the mission," he said.

Harper responded, saying he "doesn't accept" Corporal Davis will have died in vain and reaffirmed Canada was determined to pull out by 2011 because by that time it will have had soldiers deployed in Kandahar for six years, the same length of time Canada was in World War II.

"If we don't set end dates and we don't have targets the mission will go on forever," Harper said.