Stephen Harper Fake Assassination Photo: Canadian Liberals Apologize For Posting Pic

The Liberal Party of Canada has been forced to apologize after showing a fake picture of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper being assassinated on the party's official website.

The Liberal Party website had been hosting a picture contest where readers could create images of Harper in fictional situations. The contest had been designed to criticize the prime minister's perceived reluctance to attend climate change talks in Copenhagen by showing locations that he would rather be in.

However, one shocking photo had the Prime Minister's head digitally replacing the head of Lee Harvey Oswald in a picture that showed Oswald as he is shot and killed by Jack Ruby.

Liberal Party spokesperson Daniel Lauzon apologized in an e-mail to Canwest:

"Though we do screen the pictures before posting them, it appears the Lee Harvey Oswald picture slipped through the cracks -- it has since been removed," he said. "We apologize to those who took offense to the image."

Lauzon also apologized for another photo, reportedly a play on the idea of methane emissions from cattle, that showed Harper with his arm in a cow's rear end.

The Liberals are not the first Canadian party to show insulting images of political opponents on their website. Harper was forced to apologize last year when the Conservative website had an animated video of a puffin defecating on then-Liberal leader Stephane Dion.

Here's the photo, from rjjago.wordpress.com/, which the National Post credits with having discovered the photo.

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Comments

[PWM]

04:07 PM on 12/16/2009

I don't like the man, but this is uncalled for and just insulting.

[JeanRR]

02:15 PM on 12/16/2009

Now I am an American Liberal, myself, but I am not a fan of Canadian Liberals. They are the ones who outlaws several breeds of dogs in Ontario. This, in spite of their 'liberal' tag, is a gross violation of property rights and personal liberty. Now they are going after the Prime Minister. I am not surprised.

[fromdnorth]

04:58 PM on 12/16/2009

JeanRR you should be surprised since the move to ban certain dogs was made by a short Provincial politician (who, as it happens is now up on charges in the unfortunate death of someone.) and whose ambition was to become a Provincial Premier some day.

Harper is a American wannabe and is the Federal officer. The fine reputation of Canada has come from a series of Liberal federal governments as well as some genuinely Progressive -Conservative governments as opposed to the neo-con Conservatives now in office.

Like their neo-con muses in the US, they are skeptical of global warming, are the subject of hearings on torture and use crime and drug issues as a distraction. FYI.

Finally this "story" was broken by the National Post, which was founded by Conrad Black who is currently a guest of your government garbed in an orange outfit, located somewhere in Chicago I believe. Keep him away from the terrorists you really do not need the cross pollination.

[Rand]

12:40 PM on 12/16/2009

This simply proves that poor taste crosses all geographical and political boundaries

[Grada3784]

12:20 PM on 12/16/2009

Great. With this and the attack on Berlesconi, the real thing is sure to be soon.

I think the world should be declared one gigantic insane asylum. I just hope God has better luck with the cockroaches; He's really struck out with us.

[Pupadup4oBama]

11:44 AM on 12/16/2009

why can't folks just grow up and stop playing t!t for t@t.

[fromdnorth]

11:10 AM on 12/16/2009

Harper who has always taken the lead from the Repugs and is sometimes given to extreme attacks on his opposition, was portrayed as a victim of a shooting in a photoshopped image. It was tasteless and unnecessary submission by an over enthusiastic but unimaginative participant.

I think Harper has shown poor sportsmanship since his own Swiftboat type attacks on his opposition was just an unimaginative, when he did it..

[GatoPreto]

10:21 AM on 12/16/2009

Harper's a piece of work all right, but I'm not sure Iggy would be any better. Canada, like most Western nations, is in dire need of real leaders, not just Branch Managers toeing the neocon-zio line every effin' time.

[supertim]

12:06 PM on 12/16/2009

well said, the trouble with this branch manager is that nobody told him that Bush Neo-Con Inc. has gone out of business!

[ebonhand]

10:03 AM on 12/16/2009

I am Canadian as well, and if you visit the Liberal site you can see all kinds of stupid pictures of Harper. I had a good laugh. The picture in question is kind of funny in the context of being a stupid photoshopped image. If it is an expression of a desire to actually kill Harper, well that is something different entirely. Liberals took it down and appologized.

I happen to like the one with Harper in the cheerleader outfit.

[Maezeppa]

11:11 AM on 12/16/2009

I agree it was a darkly humorous submittal but some jokes are better left alone.

[Jesse P. Steinberg]

10:03 AM on 12/16/2009

I stopped caring for the Liberals years ago, but this shows how childish the party is now. I hope Iggy gets kicked out though, he hasn't done anything good for the Liberals since he is been there.

[procopios]

10:02 AM on 12/16/2009

Canada's Liberals must have a little more backbone than American Democrats. No wonder they got single-payer through the system.

[doubter421]

01:27 PM on 12/16/2009

That was the NDP, not the Liberals. The Liberals just steal enough progressive ideas from the NDP to get elected. Most recent Liberal prime ministers have been fat cats. If you want to know about the man who really got us health care:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Douglas

[YankeeCanuck]

04:28 PM on 12/16/2009

It wasn;t the Liberals then. It was Tommy Douglas of the CCF, a socialist party that later formed the New Democratic Party, who was the spearhead of universal health care.
The Conservatives have been slouching Bush-ward, and the Liberals have been slouching right-ward but still left of the Dems in the US.

[liberalNmoderation]

09:41 AM on 12/16/2009

No fan of Harper, but that was low.

[amdezurik]

10:33 AM on 12/16/2009

well at least it was "only" the LHO's picture, not like they put his head on JFK's as he was being @$$inated.

[holyhandgrenaid]

09:41 AM on 12/16/2009

The Canadian Liberals keep blowing their own foot off with a shotgun. Seriously, did Paul Martin's corruption really burn the party that far to the ground...?

[canuckgirl]

08:59 AM on 12/16/2009

I am a canuck girl made and born in Canada.

I think the Liberal party needs more creative ad makers for their political party.

C'mon cutting and pasting a photo is a cheap shot, eh!
Not creative and just a plain and lazy way to instant
so called creativity.

Liberals wake up and smell the roses! Hire at top notch ad company.

I am not a fan of Harper but to depict him in this way is
just plain nonsense!

[PENNSWORD]

09:13 AM on 12/16/2009

but can you imagine the lefty media screams if the pic had been of Iggy or Jacky???!!

[elatas]

09:29 AM on 12/16/2009

You surely don't remember the Conservative ad campaign against Dion? They had to pull out ads. All parties have come to a despicable low.

[liberalNmoderation]

09:41 AM on 12/16/2009

What lefty media?

[BOWIEMAN]

08:33 AM on 12/16/2009

can you imagine the uproar if it had been a lefty being depicted here instead of Harper??!!! - the lefty lamestream media would be screaming from treetops to lynchthe perpetrator!!

[PWM]

04:08 PM on 12/16/2009

One need only look at the signs carried by teabaggers about Obama and his family to see that such behavior is not limited to "liberals".

[Periwinkle]

08:09 AM on 12/16/2009

I'm no fan of Mr. Harper, but that is offensive on more than one level. Besides showing dislike of Harper, it makes light of one of our worst tragedies.