David Dingwall took his place back in Ottawa today. Providing a bit of a preview of his testimony regarding those hefty expense account charges at the Royal Canadian Mint. Dingwall dropped in on the Commons committee that has been tasked to examine those spending splurges, from the place that has no shortage of loose change kicking around.
Dingwall who was forced to resign, all be it with handsome parting gift, after his profligate ways were revealed, says and apparently with a straight face, that he didn't spend the taxpayers dollars, he spent the Mints money!
Well that solves that I guess. Case closed next scandal please.
Dingwall who has found himself under the glare of the spotlight before, seems to think that since he turned the Mint into a profitable corporation, then the taxpayers aren't on the hook for the expenses (his words). An interesting approach to running a company that has a rather important function as far as the nation's financial system goes, one which of course works rather closely with many government departments and in fact is a Crown Corporation.
In a statement that may come back to bite some folks at the Mint, Dingwall says that not one penny was spent without the approval of the Crown corporations board of directors (duck folks). Misery loves company eh, time to load up the lifeboats at the HMCS Mint.
Taking a page from the Jean Chretien school of theatrics (that of the golf ball display), Dingwall pulled out a pack of gum and said that contrary to reports, he had never made the government pay for his gum. Guess that's $1.29 we don't have to worry about then. Glad to see that the big ticket items are all cleared up.
On the other side of the coin though, there are many watching carefully to see if Dingwall's version of events prove believable enough to exonerate his name. With the Gomery commission about to release some more findings in the next few weeks, don't think that some smart lawyer isn't trying to figure out a way to show that the sponsorship money wasn't the governments money there either.
Dingwall was a long time Chretien loyalist, his strident defense may just help keep that Liberal blood feud boiling, bouncing all the problems of the past back into the lap of one Paul Martin.
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