{"id":220795,"date":"2019-06-29T01:40:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T05:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=220795"},"modified":"2019-06-29T01:40:30","modified_gmt":"2019-06-29T05:40:30","slug":"kiefer-sutherland-says-tweet-to-doug-ford-was-not-about-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/29\/kiefer-sutherland-says-tweet-to-doug-ford-was-not-about-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiefer Sutherland says tweet to Doug Ford ‘was not about policy’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Toronto-raised actor-musician Kiefer Sutherland says it wasn’t his intention to stir the political pot with a recent tweet directed at Ontario Premier Doug Ford. (File Photo By Gage Skidmore\/Wikimedia commons, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto-raised actor-musician Kiefer Sutherland says it wasn’t his intention to stir the political pot with a recent tweet directed at Ontario Premier Doug Ford.<\/p>\n

In early June the Golden Globe-winning \u201c24\u201d and \u201cDesignated Survivor\u201d star put out a post on his verified Twitter account asking Ford to stop using his late grandfather Tommy Douglas’s name as part of his \u201cpolitical agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutherland was reacting to a tweet from Ford that linked to an op-ed by cabinet minister Lisa MacLeod, in which she compared the fiscal policies of the Conservative government to that of Douglas, who was Saskatchewan premier from 1944 to 1961.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not as familiar with social media as maybe I should be and I didn’t mean for it to become the thing it did,\u201d Sutherland said Friday in a phone interview while on tour for his new album \u201cReckless & Me,\u201d which will see him perform in several Canadian cities starting July 4 in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy comment was not about policy…. He has every right to have his policies and he’s elected because a majority of the people agreed with those policies. What I didn’t like and what I took objection to was that his policies do not reflect my grandfather’s political ideology, and his legacy is very important to me and to my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Douglas was also known as the founder of medicare and the father of Sutherland’s mother, Canadian actress Shirley Douglas, who was once married to Donald Sutherland.<\/p>\n

In his tweet, Ford wrote: \u201cIt’s time to make government work for the people again \u2014 not the other way around. I think Tommy Douglas would approve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutherland’s tweet response, addressed to \u201cMr. Ford,\u201d said he found the comparison of their policies \u201coffensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I can only ask, as the grandson of this man, for you to stop posting his picture and using his name as part of your political agenda. After all, I knew Tommy Douglas and you Sir, are no Tommy Douglas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking before a sound check for a concert in Pittsburgh, Sutherland said his family believes strongly in Douglas’s ideology and he wrote his tweet from their perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly disagreed with his characterization of my grandfather’s political ideology and his policies. And that’s all I meant to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutherland said he hasn’t heard from Ford since he put out the tweet, which he understands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly don’t want to get into a thing with him,\u201d Sutherland said. \u201cI just wanted for the record to just say that I don’t agree with the statement that he made concerning my grandfather.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepending I guess on what political side of the aisle you would be on, some people appreciated the tweet and some people did not. And I didn’t really want to get into all of that either. I just wanted to clearly state that I disagreed with the statement he made concerning my grandfather and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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