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.
