Ottawa City Councillor John Baird, MP PC

Separated at birth

Someone on the hill just noticed that John "the screamer" Baird, Federal Minister of All Things that Glow Green, may have interfered in a process at Ottawa City Council in 2006; to whit, he suspended federal funding of a municipal project that he was told not to like. And he did this during the municipal election campaign. Not only that but he freely distributed the contents of a confidential agreement between the city and a private vendor.

We are, of course, talking about the North-South Light Rail project.

Let's get a few things straight. The decision on Light Rail was a municipal one. The federal funding of the project had already been approved, as was provincial funding. Baird had no say in the project.

Let's also understand that the project was the pet child of the then-mayor Chiarreli, who was a former Liberal MPP; and that he was being challenged by a Conservative Party member O'Brien. O'Brien won the race and now the vendor (Seimans) is suing the city for its first born for cancelling the contract and possibly breaking the confidentiality of the contract.

It was O'Brien who asked Baird to review the contract. This is the same Mayor O'Brien that has been charged with influence peddling during the same election; a charge that also has a Baird involvement.

One more example of the transparency and public discourse from Canada's Greatest Government(TM).