Liberal hypocrisy displayed in the House of Commons

Yesterday in the House of Commons, the Liberals once again tried to smear the Conservatives over its dispute with an Elections Canada ruling on its 2006 Federal Election campaign-advertising returns. The Conservatives have maintained all along that the transfer of funds from the national to local campaigns is perfectly legal and has been done by all federal parties, but only the Conservatives have been singled out. Its funny how the Liberals insist on accusing the Conservatives of cheating in the 2006 Federal Election, when they did the exact same thing.

What was interesting was that it was revealed that the Liberal party transferred $1.5 million from its national to its local campaign and the local campaigns transferred back $1.3 million dollars back to the Liberal Party. The Liberals did not deny that this happened, but they insisted on smearing the Conservatives on doing the exact same thing. Meanwhile Elections Canada selectively overlooked the conduct of the Liberal Party, but only focuses on the Conservative Party for the same thing? I wonder why?

Conservative MP, Pierre Poilievre pointed out these inconsistencies in the Liberal position and even puts Liberal pit bull, Dominic LeBlanc, on the spot. Everyday Mr. LeBlanc gets beaten at his own game of trying to smear the Tories, but he keeps on coming back for more.

Below is the yesterday's exchange between Jennings and Poilievre and LeBlanc and Poilievre.

Hon. Marlene Jennings (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Lachine, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, when did the Prime Minister find out about the existence of the Conservative election advertising scheme? Did he approve it?

Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, the member for Beauséjour across the way, along with the New Brunswick Liberals, joined in an advertising transfer scheme in the 2006 election, organized by the national party.

A copy of the cheque provided to Elections Canada from the local official agent is made out not to the newspapers in which the ad ran, but rather to the Liberal Party of Canada. The ads in content were national except for a small tag line.

This is the method of in and out that we see on the Liberal side. When did that member know this went on?

Hon. Marlene Jennings (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Lachine, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister did not answer the question, so I will ask it again.

When did the Prime Minister find out about the existence of the Conservative election advertising scheme, and did he approve it?

Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, the advertisement said that the member for Beauséjour and his campaign had locally paid for it. In fact, none of his returns showed that payment had been made. Either it was false advertising and he did not actually pay for the ad that he claimed he had, or he failed to report some of his election expenses to Elections Canada.

When did the Liberal Party know about these very strange in and out transactions in the New Brunswick Liberal Party?

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, let us try it again. When did the Prime Minister know about the Conservative election advertising scheme and did he approve it?

Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and this entire party have known for many years that it is perfectly legal for parties to transfer money from the national to the local. In fact, we know the Liberal Party did just that, to the tune of $1.5 million. Interestingly, those local campaigns then transferred back about $1.3 million to the national Liberal Party.

The member is not willing to explain any of his personal behaviour. Could he tell us more about those million dollar transfers between local and national Liberals?

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, eight times we have given the Prime Minister the opportunity to answer a simple question. Let me jog his memory.

The former Conservative candidate in Berthier-Maskinongé, Ann Julie Fortier, said she confronted him personally before the last election, saying that Conservative organizers tried to force her to pass off $28,000 of national expenses as their own. Is this why the Prime Minister will not answer the simple question?

Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC):
How disappointing, Mr. Speaker. The member has been asked four times to explain his very unusual financial transactions from the last election, during which a group of New Brunswick Liberals got together, organized by the national party, paid for out of the account of the national party, with no interaction between those local candidates and the newspaper in which the advertisement ran. After all that, he did not even report on his election return that he had picked up those expenses.

When will he explain to Canadians his failure to come clean?

Fellow blogger, Climbing out of the dark, has a youtube link to another house of commons discussion between LeBlanc and Poilievre in his post:

"LeBlanc Knocked out by Pierre" (link)