A gift from the gods! Just in time for the debates. Another nail in the Conservative coffin.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/04/11/cv-election-ag-report.html
The auditor general says the Harper government allegedly misinformed Parliament to win approval for a $50-million G8 fund that lavished money on dubious projects in a Conservative riding.
And she suggests in a draft report the process may have been illegal.
And she suggests in a draft report the process may have been illegal.
Now that there's evidence that the law has been broken, the RCMP might have to open a criminal investigation during the election and even lay charges against some Conservative Members of Parliament.
The Canadian Press were on the job. We'll see what Postmedia, the Sun chain, Globe/CTV, and the CBC do with it.
The auditor-general so spooked Paul Martin with the sponsorship material that he scuttled his own ship. Harper will not rise to the bait in the same way, unfortunatley.
That said, this is the real deal. Straight illegal patronage. Mike Harris style polticos feathering their nests.
What is the best way of making something out of this? I like the RCMP angle JKR.
This IS the Liberal Sponsorship Scandal!
I feel like Oscar the Grouch, loving the stench coming off the latest collection of conservative garbage.
Looking at this issue from Harper's perspective, he may want to release the report before the dabates instead of being hammered on hiding the report during the debates.
If the report is as bleak as it seems, Harper's probably caught between a rock and a hard place.
.
Hilarious.
LeakWatch: So, why can't Sheila Fraser just release the final version of the G8 report ...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/04/leakwatch-s...
I wonder if this could be to the 2011 election what the RCMP investigation of Goodale was to 2006?
In any case its all good - corruption and scandals on the part of the Tories being a hot issue is a godsend to the NDP since the Liberals have no credibility at all on this issue.
This article is great.
Tories left scrambling after leak of G8 report, call for release of final draft
The Conservative election campaign is in full damage-control mode following a bombshell report from the auditor general that's critical of government spending during last June's G8 meeting.
An early draft of the report, a chapter of which has been seen by The Canadian Press, accuses the government of misinforming Parliament to win approval of a $50-million fund for spending in Industry Minister Tony Clement's riding.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/federal-election/leaders-cut-ap...
And it's just the tip of the G8 fiasco iceberg. The allegations of how fifty million dollars was spent in one rural Conservative riding will only raise questions about how more than one billion was spent in urban Toronto. The implication will undercut their entire claim to being good fiscal managers AND remind Torontonians of the G8 headache all in one go. To add icing to the cake, the whole story will be framed in a context of possible criminal behavior and further disrespect for Parliament.
Right on the eve of the debates!
[display of feline vindictiveness]
And who is the middle of this shit storm? Tony Clement! -- and bagkitty dances his happy dance of schadenfreude.
[/display of feline vindictiveness]
Baird just gave a press conference and said the revised Report contains no reference to illegalities whatsoever. The G-G said she will not release the Report before Parliament meets again after the election.
How does baird know what the "revised" report says?? Cabinet ministers are not supposed to see the report until its tabled. For all we know he's just lying about what's in the revised report to try to stall until after the election.
And it's just the tip of the G8 fiasco iceberg. The allegations of how fifty million dollars was spent in one rural Conservative riding will only raise questions about how more than one billion was spent in urban Toronto. The implication will undercut their entire claim to being good fiscal managers AND remind Torontonians of the G8 headache all in one go.
Particularly as Toronto, unlike Huntsville, has absolutely nothing to show for it all - except a few vicious toys for the blackshirt boys to use on us in the future.
But Maysie don't you feel much safer while walking downtown? 
I never felt unsafe.
Except when armed state-paid thugs took over my city.
If you can misspend $1.2 billion on masturbatory police-state exhibitionism, I'd like to know how.
Oh what a happy day this is.
I feel like Oscar the Grouch,
Whaddaya mean "feel like"? 
And who is the middle of this shit storm? Tony Clement!
Damn you, smug Calgarian! But not as much as I damn Tonyyyyyy who I've hated since the Harris years. And I'm doing a bigcitygal happy dance myself.
Particularly as Toronto, unlike Huntsville, has absolutely nothing to show for it all - except a few vicious toys for the blackshirt boys to use on us in the future.
You're talking about the sound and water cannons aren't you? There's an expense worth the money. *eyeroll*
I think you're forgetting the spy cameras that were mounted at key downtown intersections and never taken down. Fuckers.
The Cons are claiming that the report will not actually suggest any illegality or misleading of Parliament, and they leaked a draft to Robert Fife of CTV which he read out a little while ago. Still, even the particular draft that the Cons are relying on is damaging, so hopefully this will FINALLY drop Harper down into minority territory and Canadians will start paying attention to the corruption.
Damn.
This happy thread has taken a turn. And it's Catchfire's fault. Again.
Sheila Fraser:Tories misquoted me on Summit costs
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-election-weston-ag-fraser.html
And the AG is saying that the Dear Leader and his party are lying
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-elec...
The opposition parties need to build a narrative that shows all the corruption and lies Harper has been involved in. It's ludicrous that he still has big leads in the polls. Why aren't Canadians waking up?
Don't they care that Harper hired Bruce Carson, a convicted criminal, to work for him? It's time all this stuff was tied together to expose who Harper truly is.
Separate issue:
Tories used praise for Liberals to defend summit costs: Fraser
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-elec...
By my count, that is three posters linking to the same article in the space of 20 minutes. Now, the first two have the same time stamp, so I am going to assume a "simul-post", but the third time?
[school teacher voice]
We must pay a little attention to what other people say [post].
[/school teacher voice]
When I looked at several more polls today showing Harper with huge leads, it really struck me how disgusting this situation is. Here we have a man who does everything from hiring a known criminal to be his adviser to being found in contempt of Parliament, and Canadians don't seem to care. They continue to reward him with huge numbers, so no wonder he feels emboldened to do whatever he wants. Canadians appear to condone everything Harper does. If Harper doesn't take a sharp drop in the polls this week after the latest G8 scandal, I think it will be safe to say that Canadians have no intention of punishing him.
A lot of evidence of corruption among the Liberals started to surface as early as 2000 (remember the auberge in Shawinigan and the beginnings of the sposnorship scandal went all the way back to there) - it took about four years before it started to actually have an impact on Liberal polling numbers.
On P&P Scott Reid suggested this (A-G's Report) could be Harper's "Waterloo" moment.
Lens Solution, you took the words out of my mouth. I have a theory that the Cons like it when the Canadian public is turned off by politics and disengaged, and even encourage it.
On P&P Scott Reid suggested this (A-G's Report) could be Harper's "Waterloo" moment.
I doubt it. I'm not getting my hopes up. Harper seems to be able to lie his way out of anything.
I think the best we can hope for is that it drops him out of majority territory.
'It’s beneath contempt': NDP's Martin
“This was complete misrepresentation and a fraudulent use of a quote about an event that happened years before, cut and pasted into this context,” Martin said.
Martin told the CBC's Solomon that Fraser pointed out in the letter that she wasn’t even a witness before that committee.
"She made no official comment about (it), because she was in the middle of her investigation about the G8/G20,” Martin said.
“The auditor general is the most trusted individual on Parliament Hill. For (the Conservatives) to misrepresent and to falsify her comments is unethical. It’s dishonest. It’s beneath contempt.”
This is unbelievable!
The Conservatives plagerized the Auditor General !!!!
This is a criminal act!
Sheila Fraser should sue the government.
I can't believe Canadians will vote for this kind of government that's "beneath contempt."
Auditor-General boxes Harper in
The problem for Mr. Harper is if the final report is bad news for him, it is hard to see how he gets to May 2 without this issue dogging him day in, day out.
Here's the Feruary report released by the Cons today.
AG report on infrastructure
http://www.torontosun.com/news/decision2011/2011/04/11/17953806.html
This is pretty bad - now the Tories are themsleves leaking drafts of the report they were never supposed to have had in the first place - to prove that they weren't criminals - just incompetent and wasteful!!
I have a theory that the Cons like it when the Canadian public is turned off by politics and disengaged, and even encourage it.
Don Newman posted an article that touches on this very subject over at ipolitics.ca today. Towards the end he says:
The attack ads will be designed to discourage Liberal and uncommitted voters from going to the polls. In a low-turnout election, right-wingers have found their supporters are less numerous but most motivated. Anything they can do to keep the turnouts low helps their chances.
The attack ads may make ordinary people cringe and turn off of politics, but they don’t deter the people who don’t want to register their guns, don’t think a woman has a right to chose, the people who think we need big new prisons even though the crime rate is going down.
Newman's great. I hope Solomon invites him on P&P soon.
.
The polling in the days just before the vote should be mighty interesting. 
I really hope this sticks to them. I'm just not convinced it will. If hardcore/softcore con voters didn't care about contempt of parliament, why would they care about misappropriation of funds?
For softcore Con voters contempt of parliament could be chalked up to political games by the opposition. This latest scandal is of the Con's own doing and it contradicts their claims of being fiscally responsible. Now the hardcore Con voters will continue to support Harper and will argue that a) the report shouldn't have been leaked and b) we all should wait until the final report before judging.
and for anyone who has ever had children or been one c) the Liberals did it too. (Like that's an excuse, but I guarentee it will be used)
'It’s beneath contempt': NDP's Martin
“This was complete misrepresentation and a fraudulent use of a quote about an event that happened years before, cut and pasted into this context,” Martin said.
Martin told the CBC's Solomon that Fraser pointed out in the letter that she wasn’t even a witness before that committee.
"She made no official comment about (it), because she was in the middle of her investigation about the G8/G20,” Martin said.
“The auditor general is the most trusted individual on Parliament Hill. For (the Conservatives) to misrepresent and to falsify her comments is unethical. It’s dishonest. It’s beneath contempt.”
This is unbelievable!
The Conservatives plagerized the Auditor General !!!!
This is a criminal act!
Sheila Fraser should sue the government.
I can't believe Canadians will vote for this kind of government that's "beneath contempt."
Stockwell Day keeps claiming that he doesn't know how the plagerized words appeared!
Absolutely disgusting!
We need to get Canadians to feel very angry and outraged about this, so that they will be motivated to go out and vote against Harper! 
Don't know if it's new but saw a good NDP ad talking about cleaning up corruption by the Cons. Well timed for sure.
The Cons are doing a good job with their spin. They leaked a version of the report tonight that doesn't talk about illegality or misleading Parliament, and so obviously Harper tomorrow in the debate will claim that the final report won't be so bad for his government afterall.
There's so much spin going on right now it's hard to keep track of it all, but I'm positive the A-G said about that other leaked version - hey, not so hasty - wait until you read the final report.
Did I not hear rumours a few weeks ago during the committee hearings on the contempt issue that there might be more things revealed during the campaign that would seriously damage the Conservatives and their "Standing Up for Canada"sloganeering???
The Conservatives don't seem to be getting too damaged so far. They still have big leads in the polls.
Unfortunately nothing seems to stick to them. 
Outside the Ottawa bubble, is anyone really paying attention?
Got the debates and this juicy little morsel that came up yesterday...
Let it sink in for a few days...Then we'll see....
From what I've read,the Conservatives have topped out at around 40%.Meaning that they only seem to hold their base and not much more.There is still alot of undecided voters in vote rich Ontario,and with this G8/G20 stuff coming out (and the potential fallout from the illegality of it) I suspect some of those voters on the fence will start to look for alternatives...
The Cons really have been busy muddying the water since the AG story broke earlier today. That's something they're very good at and seems to be effective in confusing Canadians to the point where they don't know what to believe. I mean, I expected a swift response but even I was shocked by how fast they leaked the revised report.
