TORONTO

Oakville Mayor Rob Burton apologized Saturday for a highly offensive tweet comparing Canadian military vets to mercenaries and Nazis.

The Conservative party employs former soldiers as unarmed security to help with crowd control at campaign events.

Burton, a Liberal supporter, faced a massive Twitter backlash and calls for his resignation after he linked the Tories’ security to historic atrocities.

“Any political parties had private police using veterans before?” Burton tweeted Friday night, including links to Wikipedia articles on Adolf Hitler’s Brownshirts and Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts. “Any others?

Any political parties had private police using veterans before? 1) https://t.co/5l9Ww0EcdW 2) https://t.co/EarLpbWIlS Any others? — Rob Burton (@OakvilleMayor) August 29, 2015

Criticism of the tweet began to grow and by Saturday morning, the #ResignMayorBurton hashtag was trending on Twitter.

Defence Minister Jason Kenney called for Burton to apologize.

“Mayor Burton of Oakville has compared Canadian military veterans who do private security work to NAZIs (sic). Please apologize,” Kenney tweeted.

Mayor Burton of Oakville has compared Canadian military veterans who do private security work to NAZIs. Please apologize, @OakvilleMayor. — Jason Kenney ن (@jkenney) August 29, 2015

Burton’s post followed another he made Thursday night about the same issue.

“This goes too far. Conservatives beef up campaign security with mercenaries,” Burton tweeted with a link to a news report.

This goes too far. Conservatives beef up campaign security with mercenaries http://t.co/d7S1nuXDxS via @bmptguardian — Rob Burton (@OakvilleMayor) August 28, 2015

“This did go too far. Calling Vets Mercenaries is despicable. You sir, should be ashamed!” responded @SteveDaly15, who describes himself as a military supporter but undecided voter.

Burton tweeted back: “My friend, the problem is WHAT he’s doing, not WHOM he’s using, is that dark enough crayon for you?”

In a response to another Twitter user who mentioned the “mercenaries” comment, Burton said: “You can’t read. I didn’t call vets anything. I linked to news (Conservative Leader Stephen) Harper’s got private police for his political party.”

@TerryMcAusland, whose bio says he’s a Navy veteran, took issue with the Wikipedia links.

“@OakvilleMayor So now you are equating Canadian Veterans with Nazis. #DoubleDownOnDumb You can’t possibly be this obtuse, can you?”

Burton finally backed down Saturday afternoon.

“I apologize to all vets for my remarks,” he tweeted. “I regret any impact on their feelings or pride. I celebrate the way they went to fight for freedom.”

I apologize to all vets for my remarks. I regret any impact on their feelings or pride. I celebrate the way they went to fight for freedom. — Rob Burton (@OakvilleMayor) August 29, 2015

He wrote he deleted the offensive tweet “to spare more pain.”

He also appeared on CTV News Channel to repeat his apology.

A spokesman with the NDP said the party doesn’t use private security in addition to the RCMP officers assigned to Leader Tom Mulcair. The Liberal party didn’t respond to requests for comment on security arrangements.

The Toronto Sun attempted to contact Burton multiple times, but he didn’t respond by press time.

nick.westoll@sunmedia.ca