04.20.2010 08:41 AM

The NDP wimps out

I did CTV’s Power Play last night – the network provided no link, sorry, so you will have to imagine it – and faced off against the NDP’s affable Brad Lavigne.  Like me, acting host Jane Taber was puzzled – bewildered, even – by the NDP’s decision to withdraw support for a Parliamentary probe into the Rahim Jaffer unregistered lobbying stuff.  Among other things, Brad said he and NDP MP Pat Martin were concerned about the whole thing descending into a “circus,” quote unquote.  Let the RCMP do its work, said he.  Stories here and here and here and here.

How very odd. For a party that fires off letters to the RCMP, the ethics commissioner and other oversight bodies with the sort of regularity the rest of us reserve for brushing our teeth, I find this quite bizarre.  So did Jane, and she said so.  When I suggested that a dirty deal may be in the works – that the NDP flip-flopped on a Commons inquiry, in exchange for goodness-knows-what  – Brad sputtered with indignation.  Such effrontery!

Maybe. But the question remains: why has the NDP suddenly and inexplicably decided, for the first time ever, to “let the RCMP do its job”?  I don’t recall them being similarly blasé during the sponsorship or income trust stuff.  They were positively motivated, back then.

Anyway, that was then, this is now, I guess.  We won’t know the truth until Senator Martin stands up to make his maiden speech in the Red Chamber.

16 Comments

  1. Ray says:

    Perhaps the difference is that sponsorship scandal and income trust leak were ACTUAL scandals, whereas this is a media-created hoopla about nothing.

  2. Connoisseur says:

    Yes, I was surprised to hear Pat Martin had put forth a motion as well. As Don Martin said in one of his NP articles, “probe or get off the pot”….

  3. Lipman says:

    Ray,

    About nothing? Are you kidding?

  4. Mike Yes says:

    In politics it is always “that was then, this is now”.

  5. Sandra says:

    Journalist Elizabeth Thompson wrote that the RCMP haven’t decided if they’re going to look/investigate it.

    The Ethics Commissioner again says she won’t look into it.

    Sorry folks, between the NDP, Cons, RCMP and Ethic Commissioner – something looks fishy

    • Warren says:

      Yep.

      The personal stuff – the miscarriages, etc. – was completely disgusting. But there is plenty of other material to occupy MPs’ time.

      This one is very fishy, as you say.

  6. Elizabeth says:

    It smells. Harper is just getting away with hiding things — too much. Would the NDP be involved in that? God help Layton if it ever came out that he was involved in a coverup. It really bothers me the way he’ll switch directions depending on who’s getting the advantage, and he seems to be so bitter towards the Liberals.

    I don’t care – there’s cocaine involved in the House. Where there are drugs, there’s trouble. They have to root it out, what the connections are.
    Companies do random drug testing for more than just safety concerns, there are also security concerns. Drugs will lower your inhibitions, lead you to ill-advised activities – it’s a well known fact in addiction counselling circles.

  7. Elizabeth says:

    How can anyone say that this is about “personal” issues? The ‘personal’ that has come into it is merely sidenotes that are meaningless. The rest of it involves security, integrity, and maintaining a credible government.

  8. billg says:

    Stephen Harper now controls the RCMP, the NDP and the Office of the Ethics Commissioner? To accomplish all that and…have Air Canada strand Liberal MP’s while Con MP’s got flights out of Labrador is truely an amazing feat. Is there footage of him changing in phone booth as well?
    Sheeesh…he’s not that smart.

  9. Elizabeth says:

    I think it’s funny that the detective who brought the uproar to the pubic is named “Snowdy”.

  10. Elizabeth says:

    It was foolish of him to go with a report to the government, when he had no proof of any partying hookers, or cocaine or anything else. All he knew was that Gillani “said” he had photographs. With regard to the partying claims, he really had no proof, and I mean – anyone who wants to be regarded with any kind of legitimacy, would know that you’d better have the proof in your hands, if you’re going to make accusations.

    I just wonder who he knows in the government – he is a card-carrying Tory, which doesn’t prove anything – but why would he go to the Liberals first?
    Was he trying to set them up?

    The mind boggles. And yes, when you’re up late, it is starting to sound like a P.G. Wodehouse novel, except Bertie Wooster and pals had some class.

  11. Greg says:

    My own theory, take it for what it is worth, is that Layton is letting the rogues run free.

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