Prime Minister Stephen Harper played hardball partisan politics again, saying Liberal MPs care more about Taliban prisoners than Canadian soldiers.
"I can understand the passion that the leader of the Opposition and members of his party feel for Taliban prisoners," Harper said Wednesday during Parliament's question period.
"I just wish occasionally they would show the same passion for Canadian soldiers."
As his MPs jeered the prime minister's remarks, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called the statement shocking and asked for an apology.
He didn't get one.
"I would like to see more support in the House of Commons from all sides for Canadian men and women in uniform," Harper said.
"I think Canadians expect that from parliamentarians in every party. They have not been getting it, and they deserve it."
The Liberals had been pressing for the resignation of Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, who had made an erroneous statement to the House of Commons about Afghan detainees. He said for months that the Red Cross had been watching over Taliban prisoners turned over to the Afghan government when that wasn't the case.
Under Liberal attacks on Wednesday, O'Connor repeated the apology he first uttered on Monday before Harper came to his rescue.
Outside the House, Dion said Harper had trivialized the Afghan detainee issue and had acted in an un-prime ministerial way.
"It's a disgrace. The answer of the prime minister today is a disgrace. To ask us to make a choice between the Taliban detainees and our troops -- I think it's infamous," fumed Liberal MP and defence critic Denis Coderre.
Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe said such outbursts by Harper explains why he gets compared to U.S. President George W. Bush.
"It's indecent," he said. "That's the same logic as Bush: `You're with me or against me. If you're against me, you're with the enemy. If you're with the enemy, you support the Taliban' ...
"But what makes democracy great is that you treat your enemy like a human being -- which is something dictatorships do not do."
"That was absolutely uncalled for," NDP MP Bill Siksay told Â鶹´«Ã½net's Mike Duffy Live about Harper's remarks.
But a Tory MP says appreciation for the prime minister's comments was apparent in the faces of some members of the military.
"There were a bunch of uniformed Canadian Forces personnel in the gallery and they were smiling and giving (Harper) the thumbs-up, because I think they were glad to hear someone finally say what they were thinking," Conservative MP Jason Kenney said.
There are never any questions, especially from the NDP, about the safety of Canadian troops, he said.
Harper's earlier remarks
Last month, Harper suggested that the Liberals voted against the extension of two clauses in the Anti-Terror Act to keep a Grit MP's father-in-law from being compelled to testify in the ongoing investigation into the Air India inquiry.
Navdeep Bains, the MP in question, asked Harper for an apology. Harper didn't offer one.
The prime minister also tried to link two other Liberals to patronage appointments to the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Such accusations prompted Ralph Goodale, the Liberal house leader, to describe Harper as a "bully" who would use "character assassination ... slur, innuendo, falsehood and personal abuse" for partisan gain.
With a report from CTV's David Akin and files from The Canadian Press
