A note to Cons - Look out your window

Back on April 17, I mentioned in my blog that there were no secrets in Ottawa, just people who try to make them. I was referring to the accusation made by the Cons that Elections Canada had "tipped off" the Liberals that the Con party HQ was about to be visited by the Federales with respect to the "In and Out" scandal... err misunderstanding.

Just for kicks I decided to locate the Con and Lib HQs on Google Earth and guess what? You can see each others building from each others offices.

Is it possible, Cons, that someone in Lib HQ saw the RCMP wagons circle your HQ and went to take a look, grabbing a video camera as they were going out?

The image above shows you the locations of the Cons on Albert St and the Libs on Metcalfe St..

Hey, I am just asking.

It's perfect to be Perfect

I have started 4 companies, hired, or caused to be hired, about 45 people and sometimes I had to go into debt to do this. According to Mighty-Mouth, the Perfect PP, MP Pierre What's-His-Name, Nepean Carleton's answer to hoof-and-mouth, I cannot be trusted to run Canada because, by having debt, I am too weak to manage my own finances.

Seems that PP has found a new item to work himself into a lather over, in the fact that Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has some lingering debts from his leadership campaign 18 months back. The horror! PP has to get his kicks in before the Elections Canada 24 month deadline for Dion to pay off the debt... just in case Dion does pay them off and PP has nothing to foam at the mouth over.

PP does not represent the people of Nepean Carleton. Most, if not all, of them have mortgages, car loans and/or credit card debt. According to PP this makes them too weak to manage their finances. Let's not ignore the fact that PP, as a Parliamentary Secretary, makes over $170,000 plus expenses, plus housing allowance plus tax free goodies like free train travel, air travel and the clean rarefied air of self-importance. God only know how much his live-in (Not married? The horror!) paramour tops the family income up to. The average family income in Nepean Carleton is less than half of what PP sucks from the public teat.

PP does not represent Mr. and Ms. Nepean Carleton. He should be told so at the next election.

I have some news for the Cons

One of the rules of good communications is to be clear with your message. Another is stay on message.

A third is that sometimes taking a hit is less painful than fighting the hit.

OK, I made up the third one. But it fits the current situation of the Cons to a "T".

This In and Out Scandal that has enveloped the fed Cons is more than likely a conflict in regulation interpretation between EC and Cons, but the way that the Cons reacted to it has created the elephant in the room.

Election Canada charges that their audit of 2006 election expenses shows that the Cons federal campaign transferred money to local candidate who had room in their allowed advertising budgets. These local candidates were either shoe-ins or also-rans. The local campaigns then sent back the money to the federal office, usually within a few days and within a few bucks of what was sent to them. The federal campaign then used the money to purchase ads purportedly on behalf of the local candidates. Never mind that the "local" ads purchased by the federals Cons were often not even running in the catch area of the local candidate. If you accept that these were really federal ads, as does Elections Canada, then the federal campaign exceeded its allowable ad budget by $1 million AND 67 local candidates were not entitled to the $700,000 reimbursement from Election Canada for bogus local advertisement.

The federal Cons, on the other hand maintain that they did nothing wrong. They interpret the Election Act differently with respect to advertising. That is the nub of their argument. But rather than saying that they would work something out with Elections Canada; the Cons went into immediate damage control mode, hauled out their communication bigwigs and wrote a new playbook on how to spin the situation.

I got a copy of the playbook, in a brown envelope marked "Contents may damage your brain", left on my door step the other day. The following is the content, verbatim:

Page one of the playbook states: Accept no blame.
Page two states: Demand that all other parties be subject to scrutiny
Page three states: Blame it on Elections Canada
Page four: Blame it on that weinie Dion
Page five: Blame it on Global Warming scientists
Page six: Sue Elections Canada
Page seven: Accept no blame (we cannot mention this enough)
Page eight: Hide the PM in Louisiana and send the rest of the cabinet (especially that Baird guy) to a retreat in an unannounced location.
Page nine: Make sure that the face you put in front of this scandal is disposable, because it is going to destroy his/her credibility.
Page ten: We recommend MP Pierre Poilievre to be the face of the party in this matter.

Poor old Perfect PP. He gave his career for his PM.

"Perfect PP" is back and in fine form

Pierre "Perfect PP" Poilievre, the mighty mouse MP for Nepean Carleton has resurfaced in the news after a long absence. Rumour has it that he went back to his native Alberta to recharge his batteries and to ask his Mama for permission to continue his mission to spew invectives in the East.

Permission was granted so PP flew back to his temporary office on Parliament Hill and got back to work. Earlier this week the RCMP raided the Cons Ottawa HQ, looking for evidence with respect to the 2006 election In and Out financing tactics of the Cons. The press was in attendance, as was a liberal worker with a camera.

Perfect PP went ballistic. "Somebody should ask who in Elections Canada invited the Liberal party to make a home video out of the visit to our headquarters," he said.

I know you are just a young pup with only 5 years toward your gold plated pension so I will let you in on a little secret about political Ottawa. THERE ARE NO SECRETS IN OTTAWA. There are only some people who try to keep secrets. If you want to know how people knew in advance about the raid, just watch the dreaded CBC once in a while, not just those days you star on Don Newman's Politics show. Tear your focus away from the spiritual channel just long enough to know what is really happening around you.

While we are on the case of petty politicians, let's hear what the Minister of Impending Deficits, Jim Flaherty, has to say on this scandalous behaviour. "I do find it odd, when I look at a photograph this morning and I see someone knocking on the door with cameras, with news cameras present." I listened to what Jimmy said and I waited with bated breath for him to blame this on the corporate tax policies of the Ontario government. No mention. I guess that scandal is over... for now.

When you promote yourselves as a squeaky clean government, any bit of dirt will show. PM Harper, Minister Flaherty and Perfect PP... you are all past your best-before date.