OTTAWA – The Kellie Leitch leadership campaign team is defending the use of a photo showing the candidate firing a handgun that dates back to Germany in the Second World War.
“It was not a mistake, it was not purposeful, but I don’t think it was a mistake, I think it was a great photo of Kellie doing something that she enjoys doing,” Michael Diamond, spokesperson for the Kellie Leitch campaing told Evan Solomon during an interview on Ottawa Now on 580 CFRA Tuesday. “We don’t think that there’s any reason to apologise or retract the photo.”
An email blast sent out to Conservative Party of Canada supporters includes two photographs of Leitch at a gun range.
One photo shows her aiming what looks to be the Nazi-era Walther P-38 handgun and another shows her holding up a paper target.
The firearm is rare in Canada and was originally used as the sidearm for German soldiers in Nazi Germany.
There are 14 candidates vying for the top job in the party.
Membership applications for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race end Tuesday night, with the mail-in vote announced in May, 2017.