Monday, June 08, 2009

The Cons : Six days in a leaky boat

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt's communications director leaves a binder of documents marked "Secret" about the nuclear industry behind at CTV News following interview with Raitt. She resigns.

Same communications director leaves tape recorder behind in House of Commons washroom. Enclosed tape had been left on accidentally and is said to have recorded Raitt making disparaging comments about Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.
Ex-communications director is in court right now to prevent the Halifax Chronicle Herald from publishing contents of tape. Official government position : "Nothing to do with us."

Four board members at the Toronto Port Authority reported that when Lisa Raitt was its CEO, lunch could cost nearly $1000 and management approved their own expenses.
ETA : Transport Minister John Baird responded by changing the TPA constitution to add two new board members the day after parliament was shut down so Steve wouldn't lose his job prorogued in December, putting the four complaining board members in a minority position. Olivia Chow alleges move was a cover-up to protect Lisa Raitt.

Steve gets busted by whistleblower who forwards docs to Le Devoir confirming the HarperCon strategy at the 2007 Climate Change Conference in Bali to surreptitiously undermine the Bali agreement on greenhouse gas reductions while publicly appearing to support it. Strategy consisted of sowing division among European nations - Boris nails it.

I have to go out for a little bit. If there are any further leaks while I'm gone, please leave me a message in comments.
.
4:30 Update : The Chronicle Herald -1, Lisa Raitt's ex-aide -0 :
On the now partially published tape which you can listen to at the above link, Raitt and MacDonnell discuss Raitt's political opportunities dealing with the isotope "crisis" :

"We had to control the agenda."

"It's sexy. Radioactive leaks. Cancer. Nuclear contamination"

Raitt :
"Because when we win on this, we get all the credit. I’m ready to roll the dice on this. This is an easy one. You know what solves this problem? Money. And if it’s just about money, we’ll figure it out. It’s not a moral issue."

Oh dear. Cancer and nuclear contamination as sexy career opportunities.
Plus there's a bonus Oh dear for Iggy :

"Ms. Raitt tells the man driving them around Victoria that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff had backed down from defeating the Conservative government on a budget a few days earlier because he got a message from Canadian bankers.

"They did it at the Canadian Council of (Chief) Executives, there was three presidents of major banks who stood up in the room — and this is not from cabinet so I can talk about it — stood up and said, 'Ignatieff, don’t you even think about bringing us to an election,' " said Ms. Raitt.
"'We don’t need this. We have no interest in this. And we will never fund your party again.' That was very powerful. So he heard it from very powerful people in the industry. He was definitely muzzled."

Ooops. And here I thought the CCCE controlling the ConservaLiberals was supposed to be just a tinfoil hatful of bloggy conspiracy theories.
January. That would put it right about when Iggy snuffed the coalition of opposition parties.
.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

RaittGate Tape :
"Canwest News Service has also learned that senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office were briefed on the contents of the tape last week.
"It's all bad," said one government source with knowledge of the contents of the tape ...

...candidly assessing the capabilities and qualities of other cabinet ministers, including the prime minister."

Ooops.

Tim

AtlanticHockey said...

You can now read the story - and listen to Lisa and Jasmine - at the Chronicle-Herald web site:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/

Alison said...

Thanks, AH - have updated accordingly.

Anonymous said...

Well there goes any chance of the Liberals ever wanting to talk about it.
The Cons will survive this one, just as they survived cold cuts jokes during the listeriosis crisis.

Amber

Oemissions said...

What a hullabaloo.
Do you think all this affected the NDP victory in Nova Scotia?
I am hoping they might put in a very good display of good governing.

Blog Archive