Friday, November 02, 2007

The Liberals Might Be Cowed

By stuff like this:
“Would the Liberal party for instance like me to launch an inquiry into Mr. [Jean] Chretien’s interests in various golf courses, and hotels, and the actions of the federal Business Development Bank? Would the Liberal party like me to have an inquiry on Canada Steamship Lines [Paul Martin’s family company] and decisions that may or may not have been made by the Department of Finance?”

“I think this is very dangerous and I talk about things that occurred while these individuals were in office, not while they were private citizens.”
But, I am not. Go ahead. Find out anything you can. It goes to show what kind of man we have as PM when he implies wrong doing on other people's part to deter them from asking too many uncomfortable questions about someone else ("Nice Party you have here. Too bad if the RCMP came after it, eh?"). Maybe next he will send Revenue Canada after members of the Liberal Party. Then his transformation into Richard Nixon will be complete.
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6 comments:

  1. Please. At least Nixon recognized that relations with China are, ya know, important.

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  2. Really? I thought that Harper made a good point -- the country would do nothing but watch kangaroo court proceedings involving political enemies, year after year.

    If there was wrongdoing, let someone complain to the RCMP (and/or Revenue Canada), and let them start an investigation. They're no slouches -- they were on the job during the last campaign.

    It's a point that Chretien made in his book, incidentally -- the information about the $300,000 has been around since 1998, and he made a decision then not to pursue it, but instead to "accept the word of a former prime minister."

    Harper's point was precisely that he shouldn't be given the (moral) authority to open up those sorts of politically motivated hearings.

    Video's available here. (7:15 of the Q&A)

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  3. Josh. Sorry. I meant no disrespect to Nixon. ;)

    Ben, if that's the case, why did Harper open up an inquiry into the polling practices of the Martin government?

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  4. Ben, read the horror story, here.

    http://tinyurl.com/2f82vf

    Harper is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

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  5. Interesting. Yes, I'd forgotten about that one.

    A distinction that one could make is that that probe covered government business, whereas the other (possible) ones are dealing with the private lives of our ex-PMs.

    On the other hand, the question then is begged, what "private life" does one have, once one has become a public figure?

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  6. I was of voting age when Airbus hit and anything Mulroney did in connection is most definitely government business, not an ex-PM's "private life".

    If this were just about BM the ex-PM allegedly defrauding Karlhienz Schriber out of $300K or so after he left office, then I would agree with you Ben. But this is is mixed up in the Airbus scandal AND the out-of-court settlement the government came to after that.

    Seem's like those two Mounties who got vilified over this a decade ago where right after all.

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