On CTV's Question Period this week, there was a brief discussion about the ongoing Jaffer lobbying issues. A panel of members of the Parliamentary Committee that interviewed Rahim last week held a brief discussion of the weeks events and what they anticipated in the coming week when they interview Nazim Gillani. On the panel were Siobhan Coady (Liberal), Tom Lukiwski (Conservative) and Pat Martin (NDP).
Ms. Coady had a classic line during the interview:
"This is almost like an onion, the more you peel, the more smell there is and the more tears there are around this whole issue."
Couldn't have put it better myself.
It seems more than a little odd that it took 7 months for Harper's ministers to come clean about their involvement with Rahim Jaffer. Would they have come clean had the Canadian media not put this story on page one? Mr. Jaffer and his business partner obviously approached government with business opportunities requiring funding more than once. Shouldn't that have raised eyebrows sometime in the past 7 months? He was, after all, the former Chair of the Conservative Caucus, a very recognizable figure on the Hill.
I do agree that there have been more scandalous affairs on Parliament Hill over the past 25 years, but Canadians are becoming increasingly cynical about their government. In the case of the Harper Government, Canadians are less likely to give them a pass on this type of misbehaviour because Mr. Harper has consistently attempted to delude us into thinking that his government is above scandalous behaviour.
I hate to tell him, but it appears that activities on the Hill are the the same thing over and over again with the same outcome.
Isn't that nearly the definition of insanity?
References:
CTV Question Period
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What's worse is that the opposition was calling for the Conservatives to come clean about all their meetings with Mr. Jaffer, only to be met with mockery. That was until the parliamentary commission essentially forced them to do so. And this is supposed to be the open, transparent government.
ReplyDeleteJohn Tory's performance on Question Period today was horrible. He just spouted out talking points like a John Baird clone. No wonder he keeps losing elections.
He is well named though, isn't he? Could they not have found a spokesperson for talk radio that wasn't quite so invested in the CPC?
ReplyDelete...although, I guess by its very nature, talk radio does lean hard to the right.