The party that wanted to position itself as Canada’s “ethical alternative” to the Liberals and Conservatives has shocked Canadians Tuesday with their outright dismissal of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s motion to make MP finances public. The NDP has further surprised taxpayers yesterday when the party refused to publish their finances online and refused to comment on their stance.
The pro-cooperation candidate of the NDP showed the party’s ugly head today as he orchestrated the defeat of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s accountability measures and turned to old-style dirty politics. Former NDP leader Jack Layton may have said he wanted to fix Ottawa, but it turns out people in his party like NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen are only part of the problem. A party dropping further into third place and in a vengeance against a Liberal comeback, today’s events weren’t fuelled on principle, but on sleazy NDP politics.
Conservative MPs Shelly Glover and James Bezan are in legal trouble over financial filings from the last election campaign – Glover has the added accusation of running a misleading robocall campaign. Chief Electoral officer Marc Mayrand sent a letter to the Speaker, Conservative MP Andrew Scheer, asking that the two MPs be removed from the House of Commons. The Liberals asked for the letter, Scheer told them to find it online. The Tory MPs face serious allegations of electoral misuse and the NDP are going to support them on Monday.
The barrage of opposition questions came again today but rather than stutter and be caught off guard, Prime Minister Stephen Harper fought back, changing the topic and responding with direct attacks on his opponents. NDP leader Thomas Mulcair was able to get through a bulk of his list of questions and like Tuesday, they were sharp and concise.
The CRTC has laid $369,000 in fines on political parties, MPs, and telemarketing company Racknine which it found broke robocall rules.
While the NDP made a national statement asking the RCMP to investigate the dealings between former chief of staff Nigel Wright and former Conservative senator Mike Duffy, the senate debated what to do with the case. Conservative senators overwhelmingly rejected Liberal calls to bring in the RCMP in favor of sending it back to the same committee that whitewashed the first audit.
The NDP are calling for a probe into the $90,172 cheque former Chief of Staff Nigel Wright gave disgraced former Conservative senator Mike Duffy in the midst of a senate spending scandal. The scandal has since evolved, particularly since CTV learned that Duffy’s actions were linked to an agreement that saw the government cover up his fraudulent housing allowance claims.
Yvonne Jones takes back Liberal stronghold. In a much anticipated by-election, Jones has won with a landslide. We shall see how this will change and narrate the political landscape on the Canadian Political Scene given the new-found momentum behind the Liberal Party with leader Justin Trudeau. Meanwhile, former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Penashue has been left in the cold.
If the Conservatives couldn’t have stooped to a new low, according to a leaked document, they are now planning to use our money and Parliamentary mail privileges to distribute their petty and pathetic attacks against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. As a taxpayer, it is appalling to learn the money that is shelled out is going to go to petty politics the Conservative Party can pay for themselves. This alone should be met with an electoral loss in 2015, Harper is in way over his head.
Speaker Andrew Scheer ruled on Conservative backbench MP Mark Warawa’s complaint finding that his parliamentary privilege had not been violated by Conservative muzzling and effectively left the door open for these 12 MPs to either revolt, leave the party, or vote for a Liberal motion on the topic tomorrow.