Well, as usual, Stevie gets his wish. The channel has been changed from senategate, thanks to his buddies in corporate media. Of course, being away in Europe begging on his knees for the French and the Irish to buy out yet another piece of Canada just before the house shuts down for summer holidays doesn’t seem to hurt him neither.
Stevie and his cheerleaders were hoping for bad behaviour on the part of opposition and he got it in stereo.
First off, and likely the least problematic, was Thomas Mulcair whizzing past stop signs going up Parliament Hill to his parking space, only to come face to face with a mountie and basically asking him/her “Don’t you know who I am?” That, as Elizabeth May pointed out on Power Play earlier this week was basically nothing more than a “bad hair day” type of event. I agree with her. It really isn’t much when you compare with all of Harpercon scandals, or other political scandals, for that matter. That, however, didn’t stop a gung ho partisan like Mercedes Stephenson from clutching her pearls. He will survive this as this is a non-story, but, what it does illustrate is that if you’re a conservative, you can do whatever the hell you like and folks will still vote you in. I’m pretty sure that Harpercon MPs and senators who drive themselves to Parliament Hill to work also whiz by stop signs all the way to their parking spaces and/or have scuffles with the mounties who pass by. Then again, perhaps the mounties are too scared to get canned if they did dare to stop one of them. After all, we know what Stevie does to people who dare to counter him.
Also, let’s remember those times we heard of Mayor Fordzilla on his cell and driving, and yes, reading and driving and breaking other such traffic regulations. How did the Con cheelreaders react? The media and detractors were making a big deal over nothing. That it was nothing more than a leftist conspiracy to get him outta office.
The second scuffle , and one that is more sticky, is Justin Trudeau having charged 20,000$ bucks to speak at a charity event in New Brunswick that had very low turn out, thus, this charity wanting their money back– nine months later. If this charity was that unhappy, why wait nine months? Now, Trudeau told Question Period’s Kevin Newman this morning that he will pay back the money. A smart move, and his only opinion. However, will that be enough when we have Stevie after Trudeau blood in a big way?
I have a question though, did his agreement to speak at this event contain an agreement that if the event bombed, Trudeau would have to pay the money? I know a public speaker who travels the world. I am wondering what she would have to say about this kind of thing? I mean, if her event garnered a low turn-out, does she pay back her speaking fees plus expenses? Does any other public speaker pay it back?
I think Craig Oliver was correct this morning when he said that MPs, who earn a better living than most, should not be charging for speaking at fundraising events. There should be rules about that. In fact, I’ll take it a step futher, MPs should not even be moonlighting, but that’s another discussion for another time.
The other reason why Trudeau or any MP should not charge for speaking engagements, particularly at charitable events is that they promote themselves and their parties, no doubt.
All of this to say, once again, boys ‘n’ girls, everything is ok if you’re a con, but if you’re left of Stevie Spiteful, you have to be beyond picture perfect and squeaky clean.
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sure they can just have their expenses paid and preferably be frugal about it
as for Mulcair, that smacks of entitlement Also, these MPs should be role models using public transit to come and go or if they hve failed to adjust their timimg then take a taxi
Now that the source of the letter asking for the $20 thousand refund has been traced back to the wife(who works for the Grace foundation) of a con insider, this thing should blow up in the faces of the ‘holier than thou’ harpercons.
/7d7229901ac20b4cbf21fec6c4eaa2ce/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2013/06/the-not-so-purloined-letter-who-tipped-pmo-off-to-the-grace-foundation-complaint.html
I know politicians of all stripes have regularly been featured guests at various events. I think Justin should have been quicker to offer a refund to the New Brunswick charity since he was obviously thinking about running for Liberal leader and presumably didn’t need the money that badly.
Some charities are money machines. Some are right wing think tanks. If they are booking fund raising events as business ventures, they presumably are taking a risk in search of a profit. Nothing wrong with that, so I don’t see why M.P.’s should be disqualified from charging fees for churching up a crowd at a fundraiser. It seems tacky for Justin Trudeau to have taken the money and ran, but it’s his right. Conrad Black gets paid to speak. So does Preston Manning. Indeed, I wonder how many sitting M.P.’s, Senators and other political pros have sidelines in public speaking engagements? I just saw Stephen Harper on CBC Newsworld (can’t remember the ‘new’ name) voicing self righteous distaste for Trudeau’s public speaking dollars, but I’d bet there are a few folks from his party doing the same thing.
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By the way, I am not trying to sound cynical about charities- some are shoe string operations, some do great work, some are well endowed power houses, and some, like the Fraser Institute, do not deserve to call themselves charities when they function as virtual consulting firms for big business and Conservative governments. If I hire a band for my fundraiser, whether or not it’s a good cause, I am on the hook to pay them even if the event flops.
ck Reply:
June 26th, 2013 at 9:16 PM
Actually, I can name 2 Con senators who do public speaking gigs for money — Jacques Demers and Larry Senator Touchdown Smith.
Anyway, as you may have heard, the indignance of the Grace Foundation and it’s board of directors has been outted as partisan conservative. The MP in the area, Rob Moore, has ties. The letter was released from PMO. And as mentioned, I personally don’t believe MPs or senators should be moonlighting (with the exception of those who are Doctors and nurses or other trades that require logged hours to maintain their licenses–never know when they’ll be voted out, right?), but it’s legal. Plus the Grace Foundation should’ve aired their grievances sooner — not 9 months to a year after the fact. Another thing, if the events get low turn-out, that’s not Justin’ or any speaker’s fault. He fulfilled his part of the bargain which is to speak at an event.
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http://lasagnolove.blogspot.de/2013/06/you-get-to-decide-what-to-worship-iii.html
Have an amazing day!
Greetings from Europe,
Bambi