Sponsorship Gomery Corruption Election -- Beware of Spinmeisters, PCs Cheque Brison, Irate Taxpayers, Anti Corruption Site & More

For those with short memories. . . .

In the past few elections, at their convenience, the governments pulled an election call whenever they thought they could catch the opposition off guard.

Now, as CBC polls -- and talks of election, remind yourselves:

* The CBC is pro Liberal
* The polling questions may be phrased so as to get the answers they want.
* The CBC chooses who to interview; therefore, it is able to interview only people who support the Liberals, and thus CBC can distort the real story.
* The CBC undoubtedly would like the election held off until the Liberals
* are better positioned for an election
* have the mainstream media in their pockets -- decisions about advertising and the like are in place
* have dispersed enough Canadians' tax $$$ to buy the good will of cities, provinces and individual 'friends', potential government contractees. . . . and the list goes on
* have made the right noises about funding for the CBC, perhaps.

Will the Conservative Party of Canada be in a better position to win an election later

* after their spin doctors get the 'spin' in place?
* after a year of the mainstream media weaving Liberal-friendly stories?

A campaign now won't be easy because the governing Liberals control:

* many levers by which to exert pressure
* the ADSCAM slush fund money
* other means (Think of PWGSC contracts to entice votes.)
* most chief electoral officers, who are Liberal appointees
* absentee ballots

Around the first or second week of May the Liberals may pull the plug -- early enough not to interfere with summer vacation -- early enough that not all the dirt will have come out.

Whatever the decision, the Liberals laundered Canadians' tax money back to the Liberal Party. If Canadians still vote for the crooks, and given enough fear mongering from the usual suspects, it is possible, we will have to live with it. That is life. If so, Canada will have the same thing it has now -- lack of a vision for the country, other than buying votes to remain in power. Canada will have continuing ineptitude, dithering . . . . and more laundering, undoubtedly. Nevertheless, enough Canadians may vote Conservative or NDP -- or be so fed up, they won't vote.

Without a substanial number of CPC seats in Quebec, maybe the Conservatives can get a healthy minority of around 145 seats. If that's the case, there will be major contracts for shredding trucks to be parked outside of PWGSC buildings before the Conservatives take power. The Liberals have a lot to lose and won't be going willingly.



Enough with the 'hidden agenda' National Post, Friday, April 15, 2005

Only a political naif would believe the true goal of Question Period is to get answers. But even by Parliament's often low standards, the torque in Wednesday's session was remarkable.

Queried by Conservative leader Stephen Harper about his relationship with one of the key players in the sponsorship scandal, the Prime Minister didn't even pretend to address the question substantively -- nor even stay on the same subject. Instead, he launched into a completely unrelated rant on health care -- one that attempted to link Mr. Harper with a recent policy paper by former Ontario premier Mike Harris and former Reform Party leader Preston Manning.

[. . . . ] But the Grits' hope, we fear, is to again paint the Conservatives as radical right-wing bogeymen with a "hidden agenda" -- just as they did last year, and with the Reform Party and Canadian Alliance previously.

Such a strategy would be less likely to bear fruit this time around. [. . . . ]

"Now I understand the Quebec Sponsorship Program"

This is a must read.

Filthy, thieving Liberals Canadian Coalition for Democracies -- from Winds of Change.NET by DoubleZero

Persons wishing to contact the author of this article for reprints etc. should put a request in the Comments section, or send an email to "joe", over here @windsofchange.net

I just finished reading the book 'Hot Money' by R.T. Naylor. This highly informative and detailed book explains how tax revenues are systematically looted by government officials, their business cronies, and banks in Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, the United States, and Africa. Canada is barely mentioned in the book, but perhaps in the next edition, it should be.

[. . . . ] Now I understand the Quebec Sponsorship Program; before, it never really made sense to me.

Lengthy and informative -- a must read.




What audits? Andrew Coyne, April 13, 2005

The Conservative strategy is becoming clear. It is to tear down the Chinese wall Martin has erected between his own government and Jean Chretien's -- not by making unverifiable accusations about what Martin knew or didn't know as Finance minister, but by reminding people of what he did or didn't do as Prime Minister.

[. . . . ] Tuesday Harper turned his attention to the two internal "audits" the Liberals commissioned of their contributors: another brick in the wall, as it were.

[. . . . ] And of course, they can only cover contributions for which a paper trail exists, which would seem to exclude envelopes full of cash.

For more, much more on this, see Matt Braaten's analysis here and here. [Go to this site for the links.]

ADDENDUM: Here's someone else who's less than impressed with Liberal openness. Perhaps he still has memories of having his staff threatened by Chretien's handlers. [. . . . ]

Beware of Spinmeisters

Blue Maple Leaf

73% of Canadians Conclude Paul Martin is Responsible for the Sponsorship Scandal – CBC Poll

Yesterday we published an article that detailed how Paul Hunter of the CBC skewed the results of its own poll to favor Paul Martin. Today comes new revelations about that poll from our friends at CBC Watch. It seems Paul Hunter’s left-wing spin of those poll results was even worse than we thought.

The polling question delivered by Environics Research Group was phrased this way: [. . . . ]

Captain's Quarters: Tories Building Towards Majority In Canada

PCs cheque Brison -- Old riding association in flap with defector cabinet minister Bill Rodgers, Ottawa Bureau Chief, Toronto Sun

THE CABINET minister who has mounted the vigorous defence of the Liberal government over AdScam is himself snared in a nasty money dispute with his old Conservative riding association that prompted a complaint to the RCMP, Sun Media has learned. For more than a year, Public Works Minister Scott Brison has been asked to provide receipts or invoices to the King-Hants Conservative riding association to account for a $4,400 cheque given to him in 2003 while he was a Tory MP.

[. . . . ] The cheque, which Brison assistant Dale Palmeter says was used to help pay down debts from Brison's failed bid for the PC leadership in 2003, was made out to Brison on July 31 that year.

But it wasn't cashed until Dec. 11 -- the day after he defected to Paul Martin's Liberals.

Irate taxpayers urged not to boycott Sue Bailey, CP, April 13, 2005

OTTAWA -- The taxman has rarely been so cursed and abused.

The watchdog Canadian Taxpayers Federation says seething callers have lit up its phones. They're furious about mounting sponsorship allegations of government fraud and corruption.

[. . . . ] Taxpayers haven't been this mad since then-Finance Minister Paul Martin mused 10 years ago about raising taxes to help fight the deficit, Williamson said. That idea was quashed when voters took to the streets in No More Tax rallies across Canada.

Williamson says his group is consulting lawyers about whether it can sue the Liberal party to recoup any fraudulent payments. [. . . . ]

Citizens Centre Action Alert April 15, 2005

A growing mountain of sworn evidence from the Gomery Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal has revealed the federal Liberal Party in Quebec to be riddled with corruption -- corruption on a scale never seen before in Canadian politics.

There is no longer any doubt about this. Prime Minister Martin's only defence is that he didn't know about it.

Still, Martin and others are saying there should be no election before Justice Gomery reports to the government next winter.

Why?

The purpose of the Gomery Inquiry is to tell the government exactly what happened -- who did what. This is well worth knowing. But Canadians already know that there has been massive corruption within the Quebec wing of the government party.

In so grave a crisis, Parliamentary tradition demands that the Opposition force an election right away if it has the power, to give voters a choice of government to handle the situation.

If you think an election is appropriate right now, go to www.anticorruption.ca to email Opposition Leader Stephen Harper asking him to force the government from office by introducing a motion of nonconfidence.

Tell your friends to do the same.

Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy
Suite 203, 10441 - 178 Street
Edmonton, AB T5S 1R5
Phone: 780-481-7844
Toll Free: 1-866-666-6768
Fax: 780-481-9983
contact@citizenscentre.com
www.citizenscentre.com
www.marriagereferendum.ca

Well, are you going to do something? Or are you going to allow the Liberals to continue the corruption?





Olympic stadium in Rimouski? -- 'maybe one day': Gomery Philip Autherier, CanWest, April 14, 2005

[. . . . ] Five different bills from Pluri Design -- the firm owned by Prime Minister Jean Chretien's friend Jacques Corriveau -- to Mr. Lemay's trade-show company, Expour, for professional services looked more like "fill-in-the-blank" invoices to get quick cash, than real bills.

Officially, they were for trade shows in Trois-Rivieres, Sherbrooke, Chicoutimi, Rimouski and Ste. Foy. Only the bills say the events are at the Olympic stadiums in those cities. They all had identical totals -- $9,432.05 each for honorariums for services rendered in March, 2000.

"To your knowledge, is there an Olympic Stadium in Rimouski," commission counsel Bernard Roy asked a befuddled Mr. Lemay after dangling the invoices under his nose.
Ever quick with a quip when the testimony turns to the ridiculous, Justice John Gomery suggested: "Maybe one day?"

"These are the same people who live in a country where almost one in three voters would elect a criminal dynasty to govern them"

Don't look down on the Texan April 14, 2005, John Gleeson, Winnipeg Sun

Distancing himself from the rising tide of anti-Semitism in his country, 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used to say he considered himself a European first, a German second.

In the same way, distancing myself from the surging tide of liberal decadence in our society, I tend to regard myself as a North American first and a Canadian second.

Along those lines, the email from Lee Mathis was like a warm wind sent up from the Gulf of Mexico to soothe my winter nerves. Lee's letter was a response to my series of columns last summer on Australian security guard Karen Brown, who was charged with murder after gunning down a man who robbed and savagely beat her. . . . .

Gomery Inquiry: Fake Invoices

Fake invoices total nearly $6-million -- Liberal organizer got commission, witness claims Hubert Bauch and Philip Authier, CanWest, April 14, 2005

MONTREAL - Liberal organizer and personal friend of Jean Chretien, Jacques Corriveau, did little or no work and submitted fake bills for nearly the $6-million he was paid by a Montreal businessman to whom he steered federal sponsorship contracts, the Gomery commission heard yesterday.

Luc Lemay, one of the prime beneficiaries of the sponsorship program, said Mr. Corriveau would send him phoney bills for work he did not do in order to collect the 17.5% commission Mr. Lemay was paying him to land contracts through his government contacts.

Between 1997 and 2003, Mr. Lemay's marketing firms -- Groupe Polygone and Expour -- received just short of $37-million from the $250-million sponsorship program, and paid Mr. Corriveau $5.8-million. [. . . . ]