The poor Liberals don't know whether to run, ****, or go blind. They are faced with the dilemma of holding a spring election, or hoping that amnesia or scandal fatigue sets in with the Canadian electorate. An Ipsos-Reid poll points to a minority government for them. This was before the latest, but not the last, outrageous scandal, which suggests that they will wait.
Now we find out that the national treasure, the Bluenose, has been used as a funnel for more graft. At least, the Quebec slush fund only granted the Liberal bagmen, a.k.a. the Quebec "advertising" agencies, a 12 to 15% "commission". The Bluenose 11 Preservation scandal goes away over the top. Lafleur Communications [allegedly] took $2 million of a $2.3 million federal donation. My math is not great, but that looks close to more than a 90% commission for a donation that should have had a zero commission. But it doesn't end there. It seems that the Bluenose was given $359,000 in 1996, even though the sponsorship program for it wasn't started until 1997. Liberal Senator Wilford Moore was the bagman for this preservation scheme [allegedly]. Money flowed into the scheme unabated. $360,614 was pumped in from 1997-1999; yet the Blunose 11 foundation reports no donation for those years. Then there is the $500,000 donation that is at odds with the federal Liberal government's claim it gave only $300,000. For the first time, Steven Owen (Treasury Board?) didn't have his used car salesman weasely oil to spread across this allegation of massive fraud. In answering a Conservative accusation of yet more sleaze, he stuttered until he finally trotted out the familiar line, "We take this seriously. It is being fully investigated." -- But not before the next election, of course.
