Thursday, December 29, 2005

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

It's never a good thing to have the RCMP investigating your government, when you're trying to convince the people that everything you do is on the up and up. Yet with the election campaign about to head into the home stretch, there it is in big type across the land "RCMP to investigate allegations of income trust leaks".

The gist of the investigation is to see if anyone inside the Finance ministry might have given a heads up to investors, prior to the public announcement, a situation which of course could have made a few fellow Canadians (and out of country investors as well) very very rich.

The potential scandal has been brewing for a number of weeks now, but it's with a letter from the RCMP commissioner to NDP Finance critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis that things begin to pick up steam. In his correspondence, Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli confirmed that a review had been held and an official investigation was now under way.

This as they would say, is not a good optical moment for the Paul Martin Liberals, in the midst of a campaign in which the credibility of the government has been called into question time and time again, a new concern raises its little flag.

The opposition have been calling for the Finance Minister to step down during the investigation, something that Ralph Goodale has refused to do, as he claims that the RCMP say there is no appearance of wrongdoing on his part.

The latest bit of bad news follows a stream of miscues by senior Liberal strategists who seem to be studying from scripts of the gang who couldn't shoot straight. From insulting seniors and abandoning Liberal leader Jean Charest in Quebec, to suggesting parents aren't competent enough to figure out how to care for their kids, it's been a cavalcade of errors that somehow have yet to resonate in the polling numbers ---- yet.

One wonders if the latest bit of trouble over at finance will be the final hole in the good ship Liberal's bow. Perhaps like any good captain, Minister Goodale wishes to go down with his ship! If so he may have company, it may be a fate that may befall a former shipping line owner we all might know, if these inconvenient little negative events keep popping up in this star crossed campaign.

No comments: