Former Conservative candidate and "shadow MP" on your tax dollars arrested in Quebec corruption probe

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Saulie+Zajdel+arrest+UPAC+surprise+Conservatives/8536640/story.html


"He was known as the “shadow MP” of the federal Mont-Royal riding, hovering and thinking about making another run at the job after losing in 2011….Saulie Zajdel’s stunning arrest Monday on five charges including breach of trust, corruption and fraud sent a shock wave through the ranks of the Conservative Party from the top down…


Zajdel, who bagged a controversial adviser’s job in the office of Heritage Minister James Moore after his defeat in Mont-Royal…was hired by Moore, a close associate, to work as a “liaison” between the government and Montreal’s cultural communities from October 2011 until March 2012.

His role with the Conservatives was vague, and for months he refused to explain his duties or his salary…. Cotler expressed his annoyance, suggesting Zajdel was being paid by Ottawa to prepare his political rematch, calling him Mont-Royal’s “shadow MP.”…the Conservatives indulged in a dirty tricks campaign, with workers phoning people in Mont-Royal strongly suggesting Cotler was going to retire. The speaker of the Commons later ruled the stunt as “trickery.”…

Zajdel was part of Harper’s entourage on a visit to Montreal that included a stop in a pub. It was there he revealed to a Canadian Press reporter [Zajdel] was dissatisfied with his salary in Moore’s office.

“Oh, (it’s) not as much as I want it to be,” Zajdel quipped. Asked how much he’d like to earn, he said, “Something in the six digits and it’s not that.”

There was a report later in Le Devoir that Zajdel’s salary was $60,000 a year."

  So, get rejected by the voters, have the party run a "trickery" campaign against your opponent, get paid with your tax dollars to raise your political profile in the riding, complain about making a more than middle-class salary, get arrested?   Harper is a Beatles fan, so I'm sure he'll appreciate that stories like this are just another day in the life of his government.  

  Here's Harper talking about how great a guy the now arrested Zajdel is.

Life after Hazel, and wrapping up Montreal

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080804.whazel04/BNStory/National/

Interesting piece in the Globe about Mississauga municipal politics after Hazel is not longer mayor. I think Carolyn Parrish, the former controversial Liberal MP and current city councillor, hits the nail on the head when she says:

"No one of substance will run against Hazel McCallion. She is just too revered in this city."

Hazel's level of being revered can be debated, but it is certainly true that no big-name figure will risk embarrassing themselves running against Hazel. The article names all of the currently discussed contenders for the job, Parrish herself being the consensus front-runner, but other names include city councillor Katie Mahoney, her husband, Steve Mahoney, councillors and Hazel loyalists Pat Saito and Maja Prentice, and a non political challenger. This brings us to some interesting scenarios. A rematch of the 2004 Mississauga-Erindale Liberal nomination between Parrish and Steve Mahoney would probably be the most hard fought of any potential campaigns, as Parrish and Mahoney have plenty of bad blood between each other, and the feud they formed from the nomination shows no signs of having been cooled. Although it is generally thought that Parrish would be able to get most of the support of the Mississauga Liberal machine, Mahoney would probably be able to get the support of a significant chunk of it, as well as become a standard bearer for any "Anyone but Parrish" movement. A second scenario is that of a more openly Conservative aligned candidate running, and attempting to come up the middle and take advantage of a potentially split Liberal vote. Of course, a Conservative challenger could also take votes away from Mahoney, spliting the anti-Parrish vote and assuring victory for her. A third possibility is an election with many various councillors running, perhaps up to 4. I think Parrish would also have an advantage here, with her superior name recognition and political machine able to pull votes in areas that might otherwise vote for the local council member. If you are noticing a theme here, it is that Parrish is the favourite in all the scenarios I've listed, which I think is accurate. Parrish (for now) is the only possible candidate with real city wide name recognition, a powerful political machine, and regardless of what you personally think of her, to not recognize her as the favourite is ignorance.

ps:
I liked all the various comments on my last couple of blog posts telling me that the great hand of the Liberal Party had come and smacked down on a lowly blogger. In a stunning development, the natural governing party of Canada has bigger fish to fry then concerning itself with an errant youth. Here's what happened: Concerned about the impact of my blog on a campaign I wanted to win and help out, I went down to W-VM office the next day, and had a good long chat with the campaign manager. He apologized for the way I had been turned away, and that that had been a mistake on the part of a volunteer who didn't know what proper procedure was for dealing with would be volunteers, and that he had used my blog post as a tool to get his team more motivated and focused, and I apologized for not going through proper channels to voice my concerns. I pulled the original blog post and posted a new one, and I then spent the rest of the day doing what I wanted to do from the start: helping out Marc Garneau's campaign. I made phone calls for a few hours, then went out canvassing with Marc himself to ID some voters, the result of which was a couple dozen Liberal or likely Liberals ID'd, a hand full of BQ supporters, and zero NDP or Tory supporters. So after all the false drama that was attempted to be whipped up by rabble.ca and such, the end result? A happy local campaign, a happy party, a happy volunteer, and Liberal voters being ID'd.