Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Look at what Szabo's dug up now

http://www.mississauga.com/article/16650

The Mississauga News article is from last night, so it was before the CEA Marc Mayrand spoke before the Committee, but Szabo's quotes are good foreshadowing:

"The issue really is determining what was spent, on what and how was it accounted for," Szabo told The Free Press...."If it's legal, why not discuss it?" ...The committee managed to get the hearings on the agenda only after months of stalling by the Tories. Szabo told The Free Press he finds it ironic they are insisting they have done nothing wrong after trying hard to prevent a public examination of the matter.

And here comes Marc Mayrand, confirming what everyone save Pierre Poilievre already thought/knew: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/15/inandout.html

"Elections officials found no evidence that other political parties engaged in a scheme to circumvent spending limits as the Conservatives are accused of doing in the 2006 federal election, Canada's chief electoral officer said Tuesday."

Marc Mayrand told MPs he asked Elections Canada staff to review the returns of all major political parties in the 2004 and 2006 federal elections.
The review, he said, found no evidence of other parties directing money to local candidates who would then transfer the funds back to the party to spend on more advertising for the national campaign.


"Elections Canada has not identified any other transaction or group of transactions in which all of the other factors were in play," Mayrand said.


Which has pretty much been the opposition line the whole time, now backed up by official Elections Canada findings.

Of course, the Tories still think that a non-partisan, independent, globally respected institution is full of Liberal hacks (just like the civil service) out to bully the Conservatives, so they have bravely defended the promises they made about open, accountable government by insisting the Liberals knew about the raid. Look Pierre, I was volunteering at Liberal Party HQ during the period around the raid (I wasn't there the actual day I should note, but I've talked to plenty of people who were) and you wanna know how we knew about the raid? Just down the hall from the lobby, the we have a kitchen/caf room. Nothing fancy, just a sink, a fridge, some cabinets with cups/plates/cutlery, and an old almost broken TV mounted up on the wall. This TV (along with others in various places around HQ) is almost always set to CBC. So when we saw the CBC report that Elections Canada, someone rushed over to Tory HQ, (which is only a couple of blocks away) camera in hand. No evil conspiracy on the part of the Liberal Party, just someone who happened to be watched CBC in the kitchen room. So if the Tories want to sue anyone, they can sue the Liberal Party fridge, although last time I checked, it was pretty empty, although I think they had some coffee in it.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Elections Canada is one thing - individuals using/abusing power within the organization is another. The committee hearing is, as usual, Liberals using/abusing their power to conduct yet another kangaroo court. We know Liberals are corrupt - it is just impossible for you to understand that not everyone is like the Liberals. Szabo is one of the worst examples of partisan politicians - he sees no problem abusing his position to advance the political agenda of the Liberal party. Politics being what they are, Liberals will be back in power sometime and when that happens we will have more theft, lies and Liberal corruption. So goes the country. Sad but because of you and your crew, unavoidable.

Anonymous said...

Ron - you don't even make sense. It's not about whether you like to Liberals or the NDP or any other party - it's about a scheme that is being investigated.

Abusing power? Are you nuts?

WesternGrit said...

Ron... get off it. There were many, many Con MPs ranting about the non-issue (according to RCMP) Shawinigate affair, and we recently saw a court completely absolve Mr. Cretien of ANY wrong-doing in the sponsorship issue which occurred at a rather low level in Quebec. Mr. Szabo speaks IN committee, and he is doing his job. The committee is responsible for the integrity of our elected institution. He happens to be the head of the committee, but it is comprised of members of the NDP and Cons too.

Nice partisan shot, though! Take a moment to look through the countless media takes of Con-Reform-Alliancers seething, ranting, and yelling in public about anything they opposed on the Liberal side - then you'll perhaps think that Mr. Szabo's calm collected approach is refreshing. He doesn't rant, foam at the mouth, or anything like that. He just works at uncovering facts - in a tripartisan committee.