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Tory MP apologizes after suggesting Thomas Mulcair helped to ‘hasten’ Jack Layton’s death

Conservative MP Rob Anders is quickly becoming the federal version of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford — to put it politely, both politicians are gaffe-prone.

Anders latest gaffe caused a Twitter storm Monday morning, after iPolitcs published a story where he's quoted as saying that current NDP leader Thomas Mulcair partly "helped to hasten Jack Layton's death."

"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."

"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, and that because of that, Mr. Layton put his life at risk to go into the national election, and fight it, and did obviously an amazing job considering his state of health, and that he did that partly because of the arm-twisting behind the scenes by Mulcair and then subsequently died."

Later in the day, Anders apologized to Mulcair and Layton's family with a statement saying that his comments were "insensitive and inconsiderate."

Before the apology, however, he was chastised on Twitter.

The prime minister's office quickly distanced themselves from Anders' published comments with a tweet by communications director Andrew MacDougall:

Others on Twitter are calling for the prime minister to kick Anders out of caucus:

A couple of people had some more creative ideas on how to 'punish' Anders:

This hasn't been a banner year from the long-time Tory MP from Alberta.

Last month, according to the Huffington Post, Anders compared the War of 1812 to "the last 10 years of warfare against Islamic terrorism" — a statement that was ultimately condemned by the Canadian Islamic Congress.

Some in the social media world have also dubbed Anders "Sleepy Rob Anders" after he allegedly fell asleep in public on two different occasions.

The first time was in the House of Commons and was captured on a YouTube video.

[ Related: Did Tory MP Rob Anders fall asleep in public, again? ]

And in March, three different individuals told PostMedia News that Anders fell asleep at a presentation about efforts to help former soldiers that are now homeless.

Instead of owning-up to it, he lashed out at them calling one of them a NDP "hack."

In light of his recent comments about Mulcair/Layton, some might say that Anders was better off asleep.

Anders' 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."