Vaughan sorry for his ‘whack’ Ford tweet

OTTAWA— A Liberal MP from Toronto has apologized for a tweet that many on Twitter took as a threat against Premier Doug Ford.

Adam Vaughan said sorry for tweeting that people should “whack” Ford, hours after defending it as a reference to the game whack-a-mole where players hold a mallet and hit targets — or moles — as they pop up from a board.

Vaughan has been critical of the Ford policies, continuing criticisms that go back to when the two sat on Toronto city council.

Before entering federal politics in 2014, Vaughan often took aim at the policies of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, Doug Ford’s brother who died in 2016.

Vaughan’s original tweet late Saturday morning was in response to a tweet noting the Progressive Conservatives had backed away from talk about cancelling full-day kindergarten in the province.

The Liberal MP suggested in a tweet that the Ford government raised the idea so residents would get “upset over hurting kindergarten students instead of being angry over the damage he’s done to university students.”

“Next he will go after young offenders & end ‘free school’ in detention centres ... instead of playing whack-a-mole; Let’s just whack him.”

Vaughan repeatedly tweeted pictures of a whack-a-mole game with a picture of Ford’s face placed on the targets.

By Saturday night, Vaughan had apologized.