The NDP may not have existed during the Second World War, but that didn't stop Prime Minister Stephen Harper from accusing the party of failing to support the fight against Hitler.
During question period in the House of Commons, Harper was pushed by NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair to give a clear answer on whether Canadian troops will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
Harper responded: "I have made myself very clear. Unlike the NDP, we are not going to ideologically have a position regardless of circumstances. The leader of the NDP, in 1939, did not even want to support war against Hitler."
There's just one problem: the NDP was formed in 1961.
The leader Harper was referring to was James Shaver Woodsworth, who at the time was head of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a predecessor of the NDP.
Harper's remark was parodied on Twitter with the hashtag #HarperHistory.
"The NDP sank the Titanic," read one tweet.
"The NDP fiddled while Rome burned," read another.
"The NDP told Henry VIII that Anne Boleyn was a tart," said a third.
The satire apparently did not prevent further invocations in the House of the NDP's record on World War II.
When MP Christine Moore on Friday again brought up the question of troops in Afghanistan, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird responded: "The NDP do not support sending troops abroad for anything. Let us look at what the former leader of the NDP-CCF said. ‘I would ask whether we are to risk the lives of our Canadian sons to prevent the actions of Hitler.'"
