A Michigan police officer says he's not deterred by the negative reaction caused by his letter to a Calgary newspaper.

Walt Wawra wrote in a letter to the Calgary Herald editor that he wished he had a gun on a recent trip to Calgary.

The veteran officer said he was on a walk with his wife at Nose Hill Park when they were approached by two "aggressive" men.

“They said to me: ‘Hey, have you been to the Stampede yet?’ And my wife and I both looked at him, and we ignored that first comment,” Wawra said.

“They moved a little closer and they said a little louder: ‘Hey! Have you been to the Stampede yet?’ I believe I said in response: ‘Gentlemen, I don’t have need to talk to you about anything. Goodbye.’”

The man said he felt uncomfortable without his off-duty hand gun, and wrote that "in Canada, only the criminals and the police carry handguns."

On Twitter, the letter was the butt of jokes. It even spawned its own hash tag: #NoseHillGentlemen.

Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian at The Young Turks couldn't contain their embarrassment while recounting the story on their online show .