Conservative MP John Williamson is under fire after it appears he tried to score political points in a Facebook post about the death of a young reservist in his riding.

Private Samuel Nadeau died Monday during an apparent training exercise at CFB Gagetown, after joining the 8th Canadian Hussars in January. According to the Department of National Defence, an investigation had been launched but no foul play is suspected.

Although the press release from the Department of National Defence made no reference to ISIS or any of the combat threats faced by Canada, Williamson — who is campaigning for re-election in New Brunswick Southwest, one of the two ridings CFB Gagetown straddles — used his post on the tragedy to tout several oft-repeated party talking points.

It is with great sadness that I learned of the death of Samuel Nadeu, a reservist with the 8th Canadian Hussars, at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown. My thoughts and prayers are with his family who are grieving his loss. We are a nation at war, explicitly targeted by an enemy that is setting a new standard in barbarism. Volunteering to put on the uniform and take up arms for one’s country takes on a special significance under these circumstances. Mr. Nadeau’s life was much too short. But his spirit of service and love of country will live in our memory. He died a loyal and patriotic Canadian. May he rest in peace.

The release from the Department of National Defence was significantly different, saying:

A Canadian Armed Forces Reserve soldier died at 5th Canadian Division Support Base (5 CDSB) Gagetown, on Monday, August 10, 2015. The soldier was attending training in the 5 CDSB Gagetown Range and Training Area when he died. The incident is currently under investigation by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. No foul play is suspected. Private Samuel Nadeau joined the CAF as a Reservist with the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) in January 2015.

A department spokesperson declined to comment, referring all questions to Williamson’s office, which has yet to respond to a request for comment.

Karen Ludwig, the Liberal candidate running to unseat Williamson, told iPolitics she knows from experience how devastated the family is feeling and thinks he could have offered more comfort if he’d left the partisan messaging out of his post.

“Having lost my brother Jeff, an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, in 2012, at CFB Kingston in a military training exercise, I personally can appreciate the sadness and shock experienced by Private Samuel Nadeau’s family,” she said. “There is not a time when I see the ‘Highway of Heros’ sign that I don’t think of Jeff and how proud he was to serve his country. This is a time to offer comfort to the family, not politicize a tragic loss. Mr. Williamson might have been wiser to express his condolences to the family and leave it at that.”

It’s not the first time Williamson has been criticized for taking things too far. In March, he was forced to apologize after he told delegates at the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa that it makes no sense to pay ‘whities’ to stay home while companies “bring in brown people” as temporary foreign workers.

Before being elected as an MP in 2010, Williamson served as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s director of communications in 2009.