OTTAWA - A Liberal MP from Toronto has apologized for a tweet sent Saturday morning that many on Twitter took as a threat against Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Adam Vaughan said sorry for tweeting that people should ``whack'' Ford, hours after defending it as a reference to the game whack-a-mole where players hold a mallet and hit targets - or moles - as they randomly pop up from a board.
For those concerned about an earlier tweet I posted this morning please read my attached statement. pic.twitter.com/O0GASU5Ipo
— Adam Vaughan ???? (@TOAdamVaughan) February 3, 2019
Vaughan has been critical of the Ford government's policies in Ontario, continuing criticisms that go back to when the two sat on Toronto city council.
Before entering federal politics in 2014, Vaughan often took aim at the policies of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, Doug Ford's brother who died in 2016.
Vaughan's original tweet late Saturday morning was in response to a tweet noting the Ontario Progressive Conservatives had backed away from talk about cancelling full-day kindergarten in the province.
The Liberal MP suggested in a tweet that the Ford government raised the idea so residents would get ``upset over hurting Kindergarten students instead of being angry over the damage he's done to University students.''