More Liberal arrogance and hypocrisy

As I pointed out in a previous post there seems to be a lot of hypocrisy among members of the Liberal and NDP parties who are condemning the Conservative Party for doing exactly what they did in previous elections with campaign advertising. Some were even asking out loud whether the election advertising money in dispute, the $1.2 million bought the 2006 federal elections for the Conservative party.

I have not seen such arrogance displayed. It's as if the Sponsorship Scandal, former Liberal Prime Minister, Paul Martin's woeful campaign performance, the "Beer and Popcorn gaffe" and the "Soldiers in our streets, with guns" advertisement never happened and had no effect on the outcome. Canadians were tired of 13 years of Liberal rule and wanted change, but of course you will never hear those words coming out of a progressive's mouth.

I came across an interesting comment in the Climbing out of the dark blog by commenter, Ardvark. He asked a question, which I think should be examined, as its implications are much bigger and more far reaching than the dispute over the interpretation of the Elections Canada rules on campaign advertising, which is presently engulfing the Conservative Party and Elections Canada.

The Liberal Party of Canada was never investigated by Elections Canada for all that money that went into numerous* Quebec ridings?

Is this true?

We know that $40 million of Canadian taxpayers money is still missing more than 3 years after the Sponsorship Scandal broke out. We know that some of that money made it into Quebec ridings, while some of money was placed into envelopes and distributed among members of the Liberal party hierarchy.

Up to now, we have not been able to find out which ridings the money went into and how much money went into each riding. We still have not be able to find out whether some of that money helped elect some Liberal MPs and helped change the outcome of previous Federal elections that the Liberals won. More than 3 years later the missing $40 million still has not been returned to the Canadian taxpayers.

You would think given the serious implications there would have been at least some kind of investigation by Elections Canada. But I am not holding my breath, as Progressive parties have more than often received the benefit of a doubt and a lot less scrutiny than the Conservatives.

Elections Canada still have not been able to explain the inconsistency in its campaign advertising rulings, in which candidates from *all* political parties did the same exact thing, but only the Conservatives were found to have broken the Election rules, while the NDP and Liberals were given a free pass. They still have not been able to explain why they traveled 4 hours from Ottawa to Toronto to get the search warrant signed by a Liberal appointed judge when there were many available just a few blocks away in Ottawa. They have not been able to explain who leaked news of the raid on the Conservative party's headquarters so that the CBC and Liberal party cameras were conveniently on site and recording the whole event as it unfolded, even though the search warrant was still sealed.

I really do hope that this case goes to court so that we will be able to learn on what basis the rulings by Elections Canada have been made and whether they have been applied in a fair and consistent manner across the board to members of all political parties. Hopefully this case makes it way into the court system sooner rather than later. I have a feeling though that even if the Conservative party is vindicated, the opposition and its friends in the MSM will still find a way to put a negative spin on it. Stay tuned.

Tony