05.19.2013 02:03 PM

Nigel Wright resigns due to scandal

That’s a word I never, ever thought I’d see appended to Nigel Wright’s name: scandal. We don’t know each other, but we sort of know each other. Long story.

Anyway: it’s been a shocker, this mess. And now it’s claimed a guy who I thought scandal could never touch.

31 Comments

  1. Kelly says:

    This stuff is toxic. Spending the weekend in small town Saskatchewan. At the bakery coffee shop yesterday overheard people use the words “Harper” Conservatives, Duffy, Crooks in the same sentence. We’re talking Diefenbaker’s old riding.

  2. Michael Bussiere says:

    I wonder if he split because he was so fed up with the clown show. Maybe he’ll squawk now that he’s free to squawk.

  3. Joe Harrington says:

    I doesn’t matter how clean one is….an association with Harper will certainly suck one in to a scandal vortex eventually.

  4. catherine says:

    But he chose to work for Stephen Harper, even after whatever might have been insinuated by the Cadman case, the Riddell lawsuit, the in-and-out scheme, etc.

    If he is as you suggest, then Nigel Wright probably chose the best scenario out of a lot of bad scenarios. At least Nigel Wright’s actions have caused a tiny bit of light to shine on what kind of culture Harper has created around him. For that, Nigel Wright has performed a service, since Harper will typically surround himself with people known for their discretion no matter what goes on. I suspect Novak is that type of man.

  5. Chris says:

    If this is part of a master plan to discredit big government, mission accomplished.

    More and more I am realizing how unlikely it is for any politician of any party to make it to higher office without attracting this type of self-interested “stay in power at all cost” types.

    Each side gets to be excited about the latest scandal to hit their opponents. They trade places, and the cycle continues.

    And still the world turns.

  6. Windsurfer says:

    Hey Warren, check this out.

    http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/

    He says it sounds like a settling of scores. To we, the unwashed political observers out there in TV land, this is both puzzling and fascinating.

    I’m sure your “adept sleuthology ™” will come to the fore and help to fill us in on the machinations. Can’t wait to hear it from you.

  7. Ted B says:

    Took one for the team, to be sure.

    Enough to get rid of the overwhelming fishy smell? I don’t think so.

    It’s never the crime. Always the cover up.

  8. MississaugaPeter says:

    Last year he was a Bilderberger

    http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2012-the-official-list-of-participants/

    He will bounce back since he has lots of friends in very high places.

    • que sera sera says:

      The mistake is believing Wright was Harper’s Chief of Staff. I suspect it was the other way around. And now the wind of change is blowing.

  9. Dotty says:

    Businessmen and politicians don’t mix… and when they do, see what happens?!

  10. Sean says:

    Involvement with the Harper Government has appended the words “scandal” and “investigation” to a lot of people’s names. With the exception of the 80s Tories, this may be the most corrupt government in the history of Canada. Chief of Staff paying off senators. Amazing stuff.

  11. DJ says:

    This kind of stuff could start talk of Harper retiring from politics and going back to Calgary. Winning three terms — even the short minority ones — is an accomplishment. I don’t think Harper would want to lose to Trudeau. Note to Trudeau: Hit the Tories hard — over and over again!

  12. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    This song came to mind……..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyVYkfeyTA

  13. !o! says:

    “I did not advise the Prime Minister of the means by which Sen. Duffy’s expenses were repaid, either before or after the fact,”

    Translation: I was told to do it.

  14. Jon Evan says:

    Every cloud has a silver lining and this one presents PMSH with the final reason to do away with this useless senate and save the taxpayer much money. It is an opportune moment in Canadian history for modernization of the Canadian Parliament to end this patronage senate appointment process which only leads to nonsense like this!

  15. michael dawe says:

    Gerry Nicholls, former VP of the National Citizens Coalition, claimed on CBC Radio that no one out side of the Ottawa media, pundits and insiders, cares much about this. He wasn’t at the Farmers Market in Red Deer, Alberta on Saturday morning. People can see that something is not right when a $90,000 personal cheque gets cut to Senator Mike Duffy supposedly out of a sense of altruism. They don’t like it and they are offended when the spin doctors try to treat them as simpletons and fools.

    • Brian Busby says:

      Gerry Nicholls’ words left me shaking my head. Knee-jerk denial, perhaps? Surely the Harper Conservatives can’t be that out of touch with we common people.

      Or maybe they are. I present as evidence, Blogging Tory BC Blue’s blog poll…

      http://bcblue.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/poll-which-1-of-3-current-scandals-is-the-most-important-to-canadians/

      … in which he asks which scandal is most important to Canadians:

      – ALLEGED Senate expense cheats
      – ALLEGED Rob Ford drug use
      – PROVEN bribery cover-up by Mulcair

      (Emphasis mine.)

      Thus far, “Proven bribery cover-up by Mulcair” is out in front. In fact, as late as Saturday it was the choice of over 90% of respondents.

      • !o! says:

        Yup, was there just yesterday to gauge some of the machine-internal responses to this.

        Not only is it denial, it’s still the old ‘media bias’. Even people who admit to being more or less partisan conservatives who are mad as hell over this recent scandal get vilified as ‘leftist tools’ or what have you.

        I always figured they’d go down in a way like this. Dim-witted and blind to the world from being surrounded by a facade of talking points and received facts for far too long and baffled as to why the ground under them is crumbling.

        I think even Preston Manning predicted something of this sort when he talked about the party’s intellectual capital decaying.

        • Windsurfer says:

          The unofficial Kinsella Blog Denizens’ Club are recommending you for the post of the day.

          You used such delicious words – crumbling, decaying, dim-witted, façade……………

        • !o! says:

          A couple blog reactions from the Conservative Blogosphere, linked by blogging tories:

          http://abearsrant.com/2013/05/mike-duffy-nigel-wright-and-pamela-wallin-dollaramagate.html
          “I am a conservative but I not blinded by ideology and I’m not prepared to continue to sell cheaply either the values I hold or those I was promised in order to obtain my support in previous elections. Some things shouldn’t be for sale and principles and values should be at the top of that list.”

          http://phantomobserver.com/blog/?p=17639
          “Patterns of misbehaviour that could be excused during the first years of a new government’s mandate — that won’t be tolerated anymore. … Some backbenchers sense this, which is why they’re not blithely continuing with the anti-Justin campaign. Problem is, there’s still some folks in the PMO and in party headquarters who don’t get this. … If there’s a message that I think the Tory core supporters should be sending to the caucus, it’s this: smarten up. If you don’t think your members’ misbehaviour will make the voters of 2011 reconsider the other opposition parties, you should have a talk with Paul Martin. Or Kim Campbell. ”

          Commentary light but comment heavy: http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2013/05/19/scandal-smorgasbord/

          • michael dawe says:

            I live in the deepest of Conservative Party heartland. What the spin doctors and the so-called Brain Trust in the PMO keep missing is that the people who are maddest about this are the true Blue Conservatives, who railed for years about government dishonesty, people helping themselves to other people’s money and treating the general public with arrogance and contempt.
            For them it was not an election time slogan. It was something they truly believed.
            Brian Mulroney gambled that the bedrock Conservatve base in Central Alberta would never crumble.
            One day it was gone.
            It was replaced by a new conservative movement that claimed it would clean things up and never behave the way Mulroney did.
            Those true believers now feel doubly betrayed.
            And the Brain Trust may wake up one morning to find that the “unshakeable” heartland is not longer there for them.
            And slick “focus group tested” election time promises will not woo them back.

    • Jon Adams says:

      I did decide to check out the Twitter streams of the Usual Gang of Idiots; Rutherford and Gormley were mostly quiet (fair play to them– it’s a long weekend.) Adler was interesting though. After a couple of vague tweets, he launched into about a dozen tweets about the usual Adler stuff: Obama is a bad president, Orange Crush was a myth, these damn kids with their rap music and fax machines, etc. Not one thing addressing what was going on in the senate.

      Be tone deaf to the electorate at your peril. I mean, it’s not like pissing off your core voters will ever come back and bite you in the ass, unless you count 1993 and 2006.

  16. MCBellecourt says:

    Holy smokes. This story has gone worldwide big time. This is the link to the BBC story, but scroll down to after the end of it. BBC has embedded external links to other versions of the story, including Al Jazeera.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22592273

    Doesn’t exactly do a lot for Canada’s reputation. Thanks for nothing, Harper, you POS.

    • Luke says:

      Wow. I very rarely see anything on Al Jazeera about Canada, and I usually check it when this sort of thing is happening, just to see if the world notices.

  17. JH says:

    Great chance to get rid of the Senate. I know the provinces need to co-operate but public opinion could make this happen. I hope so. Tired of all senators doing political jobs for their parties on my dime.

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