Tweet about premier a 'lapse in judgment'
Last Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009 | 5:57 PM MT
CBC News
A strategist for the Wildrose Alliance Party has apologized to the premier's office for sending out messages on his Twitter account that made fun of the way Premier Ed Stelmach speaks.
'It was a lapse in judgment," Stephen Carter told CBC News Friday.
Following Stelmach's speech to the annual meeting of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties Thursday night, Carter wrote a tweet that changed "th" sounds to the sound of the letter "d."
The tweet has since been removed from the account. But a report in the Calgary Herald quoted it as reading: "Just saw da premier making a speech. Dat was quite a speech. Dem media better report it right."
"It was inappropriate …," Carter said. "It wasn't wise and I immediately, when I recognized that it wasn't wise, I wanted to apologize. I simply wanted to point out the premier's tendency to blame the media and, unfortunately, I did it poorly."
The premier has accepted the apology, said Tom Olsen, Stelmach's director of media relations.
"I think it's safe to say that there was a degree of surprise," Olsen said. "He [Stelmach] speaks that way. He is of Ukrainian heritage, so I don't know if it was an attempt to belittle Ukrainians, people of Ukrainian descent, but it certainly was not something that was very well received."
