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Posted by Scott Tribe on May 21, 2010, at 9:54 am | You might remember a court case involving the Conservatives “in-and-out” spending scheme which seemed to favour the Conservatives initially, causing Conservative MP and spokesperson Pierre Poilievre to crow the “total vindication” line:
Last January, a Federal Court judge rejected Elections Canada’s claim that advertising expenses attributed to Tory candidates during the 2006 federal election should have been reported as national campaign expenses. The Conservatives claimed “total vindication†at the time, while Elections Canada sought leave to appeal.
However, it seems the Conservatives find out they may have gotten a bit ahead of themselves, and that 3 Cabinet Ministers are in peril from this ruling, as well as Maxime Bernier:
But […]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 22, 2008, at 10:38 pm | I get what is being said over here by Woman at Mile 0, and I understand Steve’s suspicion, and I know Harper gets credited with being a Machiavellian master strategist, whether he deserves the label or not, but sometimes you can outsmart yourselves, and I think Harper has potentially done so here, if he goes ahead and pulls the plug.
You’ve got a Prime Minister who can be presented to the public as breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of his own fixed term election law. Regardless that the law has a loophole in it, he’s going to come across pretty badly trying to explain to the public […]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 16, 2008, at 1:00 pm | I guess if Sam Goldstein – he being the Conservative candidate for Trinity-Spadina who stormed in to the Ethics Committee demanding to be heard on Thursday rather then his scheduled day, and then stormed right out – won’t testify to the Ethics Committee, they can at least take a look at his blog comments left over at Kady O’ Malley’s blog, as he’s felt compelled to leave some defence of his actions over there. There have been some other commenters asking him pointed questions about his behaviour and his antics and if anyone in the Conservative party put him up to it, which he’s yet to answer. It will be […]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 14, 2008, at 3:48 pm | Apparently, the Conservatives getting bad publicity over Doug Finley’s stunt on Monday (trying to invite himself to speak to the Ethics Committee and then leaving in a huff having to be removed by security officials and leaving in a huff when they refused to allow him to do so and to not butt in front of everyone else who was scheduled that day) didn’t deter the Conservative strategists geniuses from trying it again today with another of their sympathetic candidates. Problem is, the Committee didn’t bite, and the guy blew up, which I don’t think the Conservatives had in mind – at least not without the opposition members goading him […]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 12, 2008, at 12:14 pm | If these allegations from yesterday about the Conservatives telling potential witnesses to stay away from coming to the Ethics Committee to testify about the “In and out” electoral financing scandal are true (which left the Conservative B-Team on the committee basically accusing the clerk of the Ethics Committee of lying), someone is a) stupid, and b) in deep trouble:
You know, it’s worth pausing for a moment here to really appreciate the magnitude of what’s being alleged here. If these mystery witnesses – and the clerk – are telling the truth, then *someone*, at least, did something very, very, very wrong – and if it was the Conservative Party, or […]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 12, 2008, at 9:47 am | Just a little follow up to my last blogpost done very early this AM: I sometime have gotten frustrated at the media explaining the Conservatives “in and out” electoral scheme as being “complex”. This is the media narrative the Conservatives want and have been pushing themselves (in addition of course to the false statement that “other parties do it too”) in order to confuse the public.
Over at Impolitical, she explains very clearly in 2 sentences or less what the “In and Out” scheme is about:
…the federal Conservatives targeting unused local budgets across the country by moving funds in-and-out leads to additional untold millions in a national spending advantage […]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 12, 2008, at 1:13 am | I’ve been kind of incognito today (yesterday) so I didn’t get a chance to immediately pen my thoughts on the day’s events, but all I can say is this to the Conservatives:
Please, PLEASE keep having Gary Goodyear, Dean Del Maestro, Mike Wallace and all the rest of that B-Team bunch spout off at the Ethics Committee at witnesses from your own party, and in general.
The reasons?
– You’re giving us bloggers over here on the Progressive and Liberal blogosphere lots of great entertainment at reading Kady O’Malley’s liveblogging of the event
– You’re giving us lots of great blogging material when its usually pretty quiet in the summer.
[…]
Posted by Scott Tribe on July 16, 2008, at 12:57 pm | .. by our Conservative mole Maclean’s Kady O’Mally as she liveblogs Day 2 of the Ethics Committee. Some of the highlights so far appear to be the Cons. claiming this is all a big fishing expedition — but then proceeding to try and delay and filibuster this Committee with inane notions. Fortunately, the chairperson Paul Szabo isn’t a Conservative, so it only gets them so far. It does look like all in attendance – Kady included – are a bit irritated today. Must be the humidity or something.
[email protected]:10 pm: The afternoon sesssion of the Ethics committee is liveblogged here by Kady, whose fingers and will to blog this griping […]
Posted by Scott Tribe on July 15, 2008, at 12:05 pm | I kind of like how we seem to lurch from one scandal the Conservatives have on their hands to another different one on a seemingly weekly basis – it keep the news fresh and the discussion interesting, if you know what I mean. It also lets the public see how much crap this Conservative government has gotten into in the time it’s been in power.
Anyhow, I know there is a lot going on elsewhere today, but if you want to get yourself re-acquainted with the “In and Out” election financing problems the Cons. have with Elections Canada, Kady O’Malley of Macleans is live-blogging the proceedings at the Ethics Committee […]
Posted by Scott Tribe on May 5, 2008, at 8:25 am | There is an op-ed in the Toronto Star today penned by Nelson Wiseman, politicial science professor at the University of Toronto which asks a very good question: “What kind of country has a ruling party that mounts an assault on its election watchdog?”
A question that is difficult to answer. Even in Zimbabwe, where the tyrannical Robert Mugabe and his party rule with an iron fist, the country’s electoral commission wasn’t attacked when it finally released results showing Mugabe had lost his parliamentary majority. Canada and its governing Conservatives are in very isolated and dubious company indeed.
More importantly is the observation by the professor that such things as this […]
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