A tale of corruption, sex, lies and bribery from Canada

[JTD]

I used to think my country's politics was boring and American politics was so much more interesting. Not anymore. The last 8 weeks in Canada have been wild.

In the last two months, we've had allegations of the governing party threatening to kill people if they didn't give them money, explosive testimony every day at an inquiry, MPs going to the government side and demanding cabinet seats and ambassdorships for their vote, betrayal and more.

Let's start off with what started it all. In February 2004, our auditor general found out that a program designed to keeo Quebec in Canada by advertising there had been grossly misused. A inquiry was called which was boring until a guy named Jean Brault testified on April 1. Here's a link and a tidbit of what he said:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national ... 50407.html

Brault discovers 'magic recipe' for work

During his testimony at the inquiry, Brault described a system that churned out secret payments to Liberal campaign workers – payments that were covered up with fake invoices.

The paper trail suggests Brault made $1.1 million in contributions to the Liberal party that never appeared on the books. That was in addition to the $166,000 in legitimate donations Brault and his companies made to the Liberals over seven years.


FROM APRIL 5, 2005: Liberals call in RCMP to probe possible fraud

Brault said he found out that the "magic recipe" to get sponsorship contracts was to "lend a sympathetic ear" to the party's demands.

In 1996, he testified, he met with Jacques Corriveau, head of Pluridesign and a key member of Jean Chrétien's Liberal leadership campaigns.


Jacques Corriveau, head of Pluridesign. (file photo)
Brault said that during a meeting on April 16, 1996, Corriveau asked him to "take under my wing for a period of a year, one person who was well liked" by the party – Serge Gosselin.

Brault testified that Gosselin, a communications expert, never had an office at Groupaction and did little or no work. Nevertheless, Brault agreed to pay him more than $80,000.

Party workers put on Groupaction payroll

Brault also told the inquiry that he put about a dozen party workers on his staff during the 1997 election campaign.

After that election, the Quebec wing of the Liberal party was broke and owed money for campaign signs and pamphlets produced for candidates across the province, among other things.


RELATED STORY: PQ denies getting ad firm donations

One of the party's creditors was Corriveau, whose company produced billboards and posters for Liberal candidates in Quebec.


Benoît Corbeil, a former Liberal Party official.
Brault claims Corriveau asked him in the spring of 1998 to funnel to the party 10 per cent of the commission fees Brault charged on some sponsorship contracts. Groupaction charged the federal government a 12-per-cent commission to manage sponsorship projects.

"My understanding is that this money was destined for the Liberal cause," said Brault.

Needless to say, this testimony created a political scandal in Canada that was worse than Monica Lewinsky for you guys. The liberals under Prime Minister Paul Martin plunged in the polls. Until this testimony, they had been 7-10 points ahead of the Conservatives in every single poll for the last 16 years. Then, in a poll conducted just three days after the testimony, the Liberals dropped 11 points to just 25% and the Conservative Party of Canada surged into the lead with 36%. It looked like the CPC was about to form a government for the 1st time since 1993.

But P.M. Paul Martin wasnt going to down easily. Seeing his plunge in the polls and his inability to get his message out, he went on national TV on April 24th to begin the process of saving his government. He had one thing going for him. He had a 10 year struggle with the former Prime Minister Jean Chretien for power and Chretien had kicked him out of the cabinet. So, people knew that he might not have been personally involved. Paul Martin was well liked so he went on TV and made a mea culpa plea much like President Nixon's 1950s "Checkers" speech Here's a link to what he said.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s ... TopStories

The public which heretofore had been furious started to think "hey, we just had an election 6 months ago. Why have another one so soon. Let's wait like Paul Martin said."

Things didn't immediately change. The Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper said he wasn't willing to wait until the final report. He had seen enough now and was going to bring the government down right away and have a spring election. How could he do this, you ask? In 2004, Paul Martin was re-elected but with a minority government and the opposition Conservatives and a Quebec Party called the Bloc Quebecois had almost enough seats between them to bring down the government by passing a bill in the House of Commons forcing them to resign.

However, after Paul Martin's speech, the CPC lead in the polls started to erode and the Liberals moved back into a slight lead. The CPC still had enough seats though to force an election and swung into action. So, what did the Liberals do? They started to fillibuster their own government. They would spend days and days debating simple reports that had no significance.

The liberals were trying to stall. The Liberals and their allies, the NDP had almost enough seats to surive. They had 151 together while the CPC and the Quebec party, the BQ, had 153. However, there were two independents. The conservatives couldn't win without at least one of them and the liberals knew that 1 independent at least was planning to vote against them. They were going to lose the vote.

But, they were busy making deals to survive but it seemed like their time to make a deal had run out. Finally, though, the Conservative Party was able to sneak a motion into the House and have it voted on that called on the Prime Minister and his government to resign.

They won the vote 153-150. That's all she wrote, folks, right?? WRONG. A lady called Belinda Stronach, who is the daughter of Magna auto parts company chairman Frank Stronach, was not pleased. Why does this matter? Because for 10 years the Canadian right was disunited between two parties, one called the progressive conservatives and the other called the Canadian Alliance. She, Ms. Stronach, took it upon herself to merge the two parties and Canada had a united right again solely because of her. She was elected in 2004 as a CPC member and had a very senior role in the conservative caucus. She was like Tom Delay down in the U.S.

So....what did she do? Here's what she did as explained by CNN's political analyst Bill Schneider.

WOODRUFF: Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider has been keeping a close eye on all of this week's events. And something outside the country has attracted his attention. He joins me now from Los Angeles.

Hi, Bill.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Judy.

You know a political sensation in Canada. Is that an oxymoron? Nope. It's the political play of the week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): It's like a film noir: betrayal, dangerous liaisons in an exotic and alluring locational, Canada? The femme fatale, Belinda Stronach, heiress to an auto parts fortune. In 2003, "Fortune" magazine ranked Stronach the second most powerful woman in international business. She's also a good friend of Bill Clinton's, something that has not escaped the attention of the tabloids.

This week, Stronach made a move that stocked the normally staid world of Canadian politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both from the blue.

SCHNEIDER: Canada's government, headed by Liberal Party Prime Minister Paul Martin, is immersed in scandal. This week he faced a showdown vote in parliament aimed at bringing his government down. It was excruciatingly close. Then on Tuesday, Stronach, a conservative member of parliament, made her move.

PAUL MARTIN, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: I am very pleased to announce that Ms. Stronach will cross the floor, and has agreed to joint the cabinet.

SCHNEIDER: Stronach switched parties. It would be like Tom DeLay becoming a Democrat. There was a complicating factor, her relationship with the deputy leader of the Conservative Party.

MARGARET WENTE, THE GLOBE AND MAIL: That the center of this drama is a very, very personal matter, which is her relationship for Peter MacKay. And she dumped him. She dumped the party and she dumped him simultaneously.

SCHNEIDER: MacKay was surprised by her move.

PETER MACKAY, CONSERVATIVE PARTY: But I didn't see this coming.

SCHNEIDER: And devastated.

Stronach drew harsh criticism.

BOB RUNCIMAN, FORMER CABINET MINISTER: She sort of defined herself as something of a dipstick, an attractive one, but still a dipstick.

TONY ABBOTT, CONSERVATIVE MLA: A little rich girl who is basically whoring herself out to the liberals.

SCHNEIDER: Talk about going over the line.

BELINDA STRONACH, SWITCH TO LIBERAL PARTY: Being called a whore, being called a dipstick is quite different than being told that one has fashionable shoes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: What about the government? Did the government survive? yes, it did, by one vote. And that's why we're saying that Ms. Stronach gets the political play of the week -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Wow. So, Bill, no one saw this coming? SCHNEIDER: No one saw it coming. It was a big secret. She had dinner with Paul Martin, the Canadian prime minister, last weekend. She did not tell her boyfriend, the deputy leader of the Conservative Party until she had made her decision. She made her move on Tuesday, and the government survived by one vote on Thursday.

WOODRUFF: And bottom line, what was her reason for switching?

SCHNEIDER: She said she gave two reasons. One is she said, she didn't agree with the policies of her party. They were too right wing for her. And second of all, her party had made an alliance with Quebec separatists in order to bring the government down. And she said that was a dangerous alliance. She didn't want to be part of it.

WOODRUFF: Bill Schneider on top of politics, not just American -- U.S., but politics Canadian. Bill, thanks very much.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

WOODRUFF: That's it for INSIDE POLITICS this Friday. I'm Judy Woodruff. Thanks for joining us. "CROSSFIRE" starts right now.

So, the government survives, but Canada's political system has been shaken to the core. It makes you wonder if Canada's politics can be this bad and it's not even a superpower, what about U.S. politics. LOL.

[coriolis]

Oh Canada! You bastion of enlightenment! You've been found to be afflicted with the same base iniquities as the evil empire to the south.

[streetsoldier]

Sounds like the "Great White North" could make a "soap" oot o' this, EH?

[GalvestonDuck]

And I used to think the US had some of the weirdest and worst crimes...til I read about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

[sunny]

And I used to think the US had some of the weirdest and worst crimes...til I read about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

WHOA! That one WAS weird.

[GalvestonDuck]

And now Karla's being released.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050620/wl_ ... killer_col

They actually finally made a movie about the crimes (although I read a couple of years ago that many people involved in the case were trying desperately to keep it from being made). I don't see how some of that stuff can be portrayed without it having an NR-17 rating or higher.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424938/combined

"That 70's Show" star Laura Prepon will play Karla.

[Josephine96]

I read that story this morning.. Kinda sick if ya ask me.. I would hate to die that way also.. That's a horrific way to go..