Haven't you watched the TV or read the paper!!
Constantly. From several sources. I tend to separate the editorials from the hard news though.
Jean Chretien's brother and neice are directly involved with the scandal and if your going to try to tell me that the PM didn't know anything about it your about the stupidest person I know.
That's an allegation, Tibear. It's been offered up by one man who is being sued for over $30 million by the same people he's accusing. The Liberals say they can refute it.
He knew EXACTLY what was going on, as did most of the senior politicians.
Prove it. I have no doubt they knew what was going on, but if the trail stops with the back room boys, then there is no proof. It's called plausible deniability.
How Paul Martin can claim that he was a senior Quebec MP and finance minister and still didn't know anything about the kick-back scheme. He was either full aware of the situation and ignored it or is completely inept at performing his duties. Either way he should be held accountable.
He is the one guy in the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party who actually may not have known what was going on. Keep in mind that he was basically at war with the Chretienites for most of his career. They wouldn't be offering up anything that could be used against them.
He also may have been fully aware of what was going on.
Again though...prove it.
The shrill screams of senior politicians being involved in a criminal conspiracy are all politics. They aren't good politics either...Harper and his buddies need to learn that. Canadians are not as prone to believing scandal-mongering as the US electorate is. Sometimes there is even a backlash. Harper bases his campaigns and his politicking very much on the Republican model though.
There was a guy on CBC yesterday who said if any of these allegations can be corroborated, this is the worst scandal in Canada in 100 years.
You mean even worse than Tuna-gate? :wink:
It's a very serious scandal, but even MacKay said that it is likely that some of the testimony is pretty questionable. Of course a little while later he was yarking about a vast criminal conspiracy.
There were a lot of man on the street interviews indicating that most people, especially in the 905 area code where the Conservatives need seats, really don't care.
There was another guy who said he knew what was going on and was passing all his "brown envelops" for 2 years to the RCMP.
And there will no doubt be criminal charges if that's true.
If the Liberals get elected again after all this, I give up…..
If the Conservatives don't start speaking in more measured tones, the Liberals are likely to gain seats outside of Quebec from this. People are tired of them trying to scream people down in Question Period. People are tired of every question being about a scandal (real or imagined) instead of the business of governing.
That doesn't mean that they can't criticize, but it does mean that they should tone down the rhetoric and deal in fact and that they should try to sing more than one note.
