Jack Layton's widow Olivia Chow says she accepts the apology of a Conservative MP who said Thomas Mulcair hastened her husband's death.
Rob Anders, a backbench MP representing Calgary West, suggested in an interview that Mulcair pushed Layton to work too hard during the last federal election.
Chow responded Monday outside the House of Commons, saying "conspiracy theories" such as the one presented by Anders are a waste of time and she's putting the incident behind her.
"Let's move forward, let's work for a cure for cancer, let’s work together for a better country," Chow said. She added that Anders had not apologized to her personally, but she suggested he could sponsor her in an upcoming charity run for Prostate Cancer Canada, as a way of making amends.
Anders made the remarks in an interview with iPolitics. The comments quickly generated a heated response.
"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 said in the article published online Monday.
He went on: “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,” Anders said in the interview.
As a result of the pressure, he suggested, Layton pushed himself harder than he should have.
“Clearly, Mr. Anders’ comments don’t reflect the position of the government and most certainly don’t reflect the position of the prime minister,” Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski told CTV’s Power Play Monday. “They were inconsiderate, they were insensitive.”
Mulcair was perceived as a likely future successor to Layton at the time, and Mulcair was eventually elected as NDP leader, following Layton's death due to cancer in August 2011. Layton died a few months after leading his party to its best -ever federal election result, vaulting the party to Official Opposition status for the first time in its history.
The comments generated a quick response from the NDP and the Conservatives. And by midday Monday Anders had issued a short apology.
"My comments in iPolitics with respect to Mr. Mulcair and Mr. Layton were insensitive and inconsiderate. I apologize to Mr. Mulcair and to Mr. Layton's family," Anders said in a statement.
Andrew MacDougall, director of communications for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, quickly took to Twitter to distance the Prime Minister's Office from Anders' comments about Mulcair and Layton.
"To be clear, Mr. Anders' comments regarding Jack Layton in no way represent the views of @pmharper or the Government," MacDougall said.
Lukiwski said he hopes all parties can move on now that Anders has apologized, “because clearly those comments were uncalled for.”
Anders recently made headlines for falling asleep during a presentation in the House of Commons.
