Conservatives run bubble campaign

In Whitby-Oshawa the fixture debate is the Virtual Town Hall broadcast on CTV. When I ran against Flaherty in 2008, he refused to participate in that event. So what did CTV do? They cancelled the event and tried to BS me by saying that a number of the candidates had declined. I was on good terms with all the other candidates and asked them whether that was true or not. Learning that it was pure BS I then went back to the CTV producer and had her repeat her lie to me again and called her out saying that all the other candidates were willing and eager to participate and asked her (1) why she is running cover for Flaherty and (2) why is she canceling the fixture debate and depriving voters of hearing from their candidates simply because Flaherty is too chicken?

Conservatives run bubble campaign

POSTED ON APRIL 22, 2011

Across this country, Conservative candidates are emulating Stephen Harper’s tightly scripted bubble campaign by deliberately skipping all-candidates debates in their ridings.

Why?

Could it be that when Conservatives don’t duck debates, they put their foot in their mouths – or commit gaffes to embarrass their party?

Diane Finley says pets are more vulnerable than children

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq6wGiwckRs

Cheryl Gallant storms out of local debate

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UOYGSiXbxI

This comes after star Conservative candidate Chris Alexander confirmed that Conservatives are “for businesses first, for families and pensioners second” and after Conservative candidate Brad Trost spoke with pride of his role in defunding Planned Parenthood at an all-candidates debate yesterday.

It doesn’t help Stephen Harper when his candidates tell their constituents what they really think.

Perhaps that’s why the list of Conservative candidates shirking open democracy during this campaign is growing daily. Here’s a list of Conservatives who are either refusing media interviews, and/or refusing to attend all-candidate debates or have indicated they won’t:

1. Stephen Woodworth – Kitchener Centre
2. Corneliu Chisu – Pickering-Scarborough East
3. Bob Saroya – Markham-Unionville
4. Bev Oda – Durham
5. Jennifer Clarke – Vancouver Centre
6. Peter Kent – Thornhill
7. Cheryl Gallant – Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke
8. Rob Anders – Calgary West
9. John Koury – Nanaimo-Cowichan
10. Sylvie Boucher – Beauport-Limoilou
11. Daniel Petit – Charlesbourg-Haute-Saint-Charles
12. Robert Goguen – Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe
13. Jilian Saweczko – York South-Weston
14. Marty Burke – Guelph
15. Dave Van Kesteren – Chatham-Kent-Essex
16. Costas Menegakis – Richmond Hill
17. Joyce Bateman – Winnipeg South Centre
18. David Wilks – Kootenay-Columbia
19. Pierre Lemieux – Glengarry-Prescott-Russell
20. Fred Slade – Sudbury
21. Lynne Reynolds – Nickel Belt
22. Elie Salibi – Ottawa South
23. Gordon O’Connor – Carleton Mississippi Mills
24. Kevin Moore – Toronto Centre
25. Michelle Rempel – Calgary Centre-North
26. Shelly Glover – St. Boniface
27. Julian Fantino – Vaughan
28. Deepak Obhrai – Calgary East
29. Diane Ablonczy – Calgary-Nose Hill
30. Ed Holder – London West
31. Royal Galipeau – Ottawa-Orleans
32. Damian Konstantinakos – Ottawa Centre
33. Devinder Shory – Calgary Northeast
34. Larry Miller – Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound
35. Patrick Brown – Barrie
36. Phil McColeman – Brant
37. Mark Strahl – Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon
38. Wally Daudrich – Churchill
39. Nancy Brassard-Fortin – Hull-Alymer
40. Peter Braid – Kitchener-Waterloo
41. John Duncan – North Vancouver
42. Pierre Lacroix – Trois Rivières
43. Leanna Villella – Welland
44. Lavar Payne – Medicine Hat
45. Kelly Block – Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar
46. Chuck Konkel – Scarborough-Guildwood
47. Gerald Keddy – South Shore-St. Margaret’s
48. Pierre Poilievre – Nepean-Carleton
49. Theresa Rodrigues – Davenport
50. Donna Cadman – Surrey

The Liberal Party is running a campaign of openness and accountability. For details on how these Conservative candidates are ducking their democratic responsibilities, please contact: Liberal Party of Canada, 613-783-8888.

Want to hear a joke? Building on principles!

Star probe: Toronto builder siphoned $1.8M from Gravenhurst project



Parry Sound MP Tony Clement officially breaks ground at Gravenhurst Centennial Centre.

Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter
Published On Thu Apr 21 2011

A Toronto builder siphoned almost $1.8 million of taxpayers’ money from a municipal project in cottage country by taking advantage of weak controls in the Conservative government’s economic stimulus program, a Star investigation has found.

Dalton Engineering and Construction Ltd. used a sophisticated kickback scheme to extract the money from cement, steel and other suppliers working on an expansion of the Gravenhurst Centennial Centre. The project is in Industry Minister Tony Clement’s riding.

Dalton was paid a fixed-price fee to manage construction of a recreation centre with pool and hockey rink but secretly insisted on hefty kickbacks from many of its subcontractors.

Kickbacks from subcontractors — as much as 10 per cent of their individual contracts — helped hike the cost of a project that started at $18.7 million and is now dangerously over budget at $21.8 million and not yet completed.

Here’s the kicker: Local residents have been told property taxes will rise to make up the difference between the final price tab and what the federal, provincial and town governments originally intended to pay.

The Star’s investigation is based on Dalton’s accounting records, town documents, interviews with some subcontractors who worked on the large project, and interviews with two former Dalton officials.

Our investigation was hampered by Dalton’s instructions to all subcontractors not to speak to the Star and Dalton’s decision not to comment and to refer all questions to the town of Gravenhurst.

Dalton officials called the Star’s information “inaccurate” and “outdated or incomplete.”

This week, the town confirmed several aspects of the Star’s investigation but said most of the Star’s questions could not be answered because until very recently Dalton had all project documents. Gravenhurst is hiring a “cost consultant” to investigate the allegations.

Questions to Dalton and the town and their responses can be found at thestar.com.

“I get your allegations, I don’t know anything about it,” said Ravi Rajpal, vice-president of estimating at Dalton, the only current Dalton official to speak to the Star.

A Dalton official also sent a note to the Star saying: “We are confident that the Town’s review of this information will demonstrate that Dalton has and continues to provide good value to the Town of Gravenhurst in respect to the Centennial project.”

Mike Campian, who until November ran the Gravenhurst project for Dalton, has viewed the results of the Star investigation and confirmed its conclusions.

“When I was at Dalton the top officials of the company were always saying, ‘We have to make 10 per cent above the fixed fee.’ They would get us to do everything we could to squeeze the trades,” Campian told the Star.

He said he was fired late last year after he refused to continue with the scheme.

“I was the face of Dalton to the town. I feel terrible about what I did for them,” he said.

The Star has obtained two sets of accounting records prepared by Dalton and examples are posted on our website. One set was given to the town; the other was for Dalton’s internal use.

The internal records, which the town did not see, show evidence of kickbacks — two columns listing the amounts.

The internal records show that as of last November Dalton had extracted almost $1.8 million in addition to its set fee and its allowable expenses, which together total $1.3 million. (Other increases in the project budget are due to a decision to increase the size of the expansion.)

The Gravenhurst project is part of the Conservative government’s $8.8 billion Building Canada fund, hailed by the Harper government as its bid to build “a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and better communities.”

The federal government has little oversight over these projects, relying on municipal officials to oversee the project with occasional monitoring by a provincial official.

Dalton was chosen by Gravenhurst in October 2009 to be the project manager. The job was to renovate an aging hockey arena and to add an aquatic centre, new change rooms and fitness rooms.

Gravenhurst chose Toronto-based CS&P Architects Inc. as project designer.

The Dalton family, which lives in the Toronto area, has a longtime presence in cottage country, owning part of Tobin’s Island on Lake Rosseau. Peter Dalton, who started the company, has left day-to-day operations of the firm to sons Randy and Andrew.

This appears to be the first large government project for Dalton, which made a name for itself renovating private clubs and schools in the Toronto area.

Among the sites where it done work are Upper Canada College, the Granite Club and numerous private golf clubs including the Rosedale, Weston and Islington.

Dalton employees do not perform construction work itself. Rather, the firm acts as construction manager, keeping two or three staff on the site.

Dalton’s first big task on the Gravenhurst project was to issue tenders for the subcontractors who would do the actual building and to recommend which companies the town should choose. Tenders were issued between March and May 2010.

The federal and provincial governments split the stimulus contribution of $12.3 million equally, with Gravenhurst expected to kick in roughly $6.4 million. (The town will now pay more — nearly $10 million.)

Under the contract, Dalton was to be paid a fixed fee of $933,146 and about $293,000 in expenses.

Records obtained by the Star show kickbacks involving at least half of the 88 trades hired to do work. It found there were at least four ways that Dalton extracted additional money from the project.

• Telling the town something cost more than it did.

Concrete is one example. At a tender meeting in the spring of 2010, Dalton presented a document summarizing three tenders from cement companies. It stated each company bid $160 per cubic metre of concrete for a job that would use about 3,000 cubic metres.

The Dalton document recommended Lafarge be chosen because it is 15 minutes closer to the job site. The Star contacted the two losing bidders; neither would reveal its bid but both said it was lower than $160.

Two sources involved in the Gravenhurst project said Lafarge actually bid $130 and Dalton pocketed the difference.

Lafarge would not open up its books to the Star. After a reporter put the results of the Star’s investigation to company official Brian MooSang, Moosang called back and suggested the original price his company bid may have dropped and Dalton would not be required to “pass it on” to the town. Dalton’s internal accounting records reveal Dalton pocketed $86,343 on concrete.

• Using a fictitious charge.

Dalton recommended Squire Masonry be chosen at a cost of $848,848. Dalton’s internal records show it took $51,091 back from Squire, and the paperwork from Squire shows it had to pay Dalton for “cleanup and materials handling.” In fact, Squire did its own cleanup on the site.

Two people who have worked for Dalton say the cleaning invoice was just a way of making the kickback seem legitimate.

Gravenhurst Mayor Paisley Donaldson sent a statement to the Star this week noting that “Dalton would not be allowed to charge ‘up fees’ to the trades (subcontractors)” on the project.

Squire officials would not respond to four requests from the Star for an interview. John Pinkney, a former Squire executive who worked on the contract (he was laid off several weeks ago due to lack of new work) said he has “no recollection” of a cleaning fee in the contract.

• Saying there was a tax and there wasn’t.

The Gravenhurst project straddled the changeover between the PST/GST and the new HST in the summer of 2010.

Dalton’s job, as the project wore on, was to pay (using the government money) all subcontractors. In at least four cases, Dalton mistakenly included provincial sales tax (PST) in its payments to the subcontractors for the time period when PST no longer existed. In those cases, Dalton then asked the subcontractors for the PST portion back.

Benson Steel, which had a $930,000 contract to supply steel, was one of those companies. Officials there confirm they paid the money back to Dalton. (Benson Steel would not say how much but it would be roughly $50,000.)

Mayor Donaldson’s written response to the Star said the town asked Dalton last August about the PST issue and Dalton responded it had “tendered this project without PST . . . and there would not be any credits for PST.”

That money should have been paid back to the governments that provided the grant money but they can find no record of receiving it. A Benson Steel spokesman said “it is unknown” what happened to the PST money it returned to Dalton.

Schindler Elevator Corp. was another company that confirmed it paid PST back to Dalton. A spokesman confirmed they paid PST back to Dalton, then hung up the phone when the Star asked more questions.

• Flat payment.

Dalton’s internal records show some companies paid flat fees to Dalton during the contract.

Acapulco Pools was paid $577,672 to install pool equipment. The internal Dalton records show Dalton was paid money by Acapulco in two installments — one listed as $21,530, the other as a flat fee of $20,000.

Acapulco president Bernhard Gall did not respond to a telephone request for an interview or to a written note setting out the allegations.

Paradise Steel had a $250,135 contract and Dalton’s records show Dalton collected a flat $20,000 from Paradise. Owner Raju Shah said he had been away in India for four months but would look into it. “Whether (Dalton) collected it or they are back charges, I will find out and call you back.”

Shah did not call back.

The Dalton records have a “Total” section at the bottom, adding up these additional charges. As of November 2010 the charges totalled $1,777,926 and the document calculates that as “9.36 per cent” of the project budget.

The Dalton’s stated fee plus expenses is about 5 per cent on top of that.

The records also show some unusual expenses charged by Dalton to the town of Gravenhurst.

The two Dalton officials on site for about six months each had a cellphone but the town was charged $15,551 for cellphones.

Dalton has an old laptop that the site manager carries. Dalton charged $11,348 for that.

Town officials say they are looking into the allegations raised by the Star.

“Any allegations made against Dalton of improper charges, additional charges, or inappropriate charges are currently being investigated by the Town,” Mayor Donaldson said in the statement.

The town noted that independent of the Star’s questions it had already noted “certain irregularities in respect of (charges for) insurance and bonding.” It said Dalton has corrected its mistake and paid some money back.

The only evidence that a town official may have benefitted from the project is the line called “Fire Watch” in the Dalton expense sheets.

The 25-year-old son of the town counsellor who chaired Gravenhurst’s building decision committee was paid $25,000 over a period of several months to stand in the building while it was under construction and call out if he saw a fire.

Kevin Donovan can be reached at kdonovan@thestar.ca or 416-312-3503

Brilliant.....moron!

Leave it to Jack Layton to attempt to score political points by proposing an absurd policy. Just like the time he wanted to control ATM fees, this time he is proposing to fine MPs who fail to attend more that half the votes in Parliament. Think about what Jack Layton is actually saying. MPs will be paid $150,000 a year if they attend more than half the votes in Parliament and only (?) $149,000 a year if they attend none. This is Layton's "solution" to Parliament's dysfunction? It will probably have the opposite effect, now that such a low price has been assigned to actually attending Parliament.

I have a better idea: Let's abolish the party system. Maybe then, Canadians will have true representation in Parliament, rather than Parliament being a gathering of trained seals:

Layton wants $1,000 fine for MPs who miss half of Commons votes
Postmedia News
April 21, 2011 7:01 AM

NDP leader Jack Layton wants to crack down on MPs who don't show up for work by subjecting those who miss half the votes in the House of Commons to a $1,000 fine.

NDP leader Jack Layton wants to crack down on MPs who don't show up for work by subjecting those who miss half the votes in the House of Commons to a $1,000 fine.
Photograph by: Chris Wattie, Reuters

OTTAWA — NDP leader Jack Layton announced plans Thursday to crack down on members of Parliament who don't show up to work.

Under his plan, MPs who miss half the votes in the House of Commons would be subject to a $1,000 fine.

"Canadians expect their elected MPs to show up to Parliament and vote on their behalf. That's why they send us to Ottawa," he said in a statement. "It's an insult to voters to consistently and deliberately avoid voting on the issues that matter to them. My proposal ensures that if you don't show up, you will pay a price."

While he believes most MPs work hard and have good reasons when they miss votes, he's hopeful his proposal will "restore public confidence in Parliament."

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has been a key target of the NDP's crusade against absentee MPs.

Earlier this week, the party issued a statement attacking Ignatieff for missing 70 per cent of votes in 2010.
© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/decision-canada/Layton+wants+fine+miss+half+Commons+votes/4654521/story.html#ixzz1KAnimQ9X

The real story why Canadians can't see the AG's report

From: Michael Ignatieff

Brent --

Last week, through an Avaaz.org petition, you asked me to call on the Auditor General to release her report on the Conservatives’ potentially illegal handling of funds for the G8/G20 summit.

You are absolutely right to want to see this report. Which is why we have put our support behind Sheila Fraser to make it available if Stephen Harper won’t, and, earlier today, called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate the matter immediately.

But the truth is the real battle to get this report released took place in March.

On Thursday, March 24, less than 48 hours before the election began, Liberals from the Standing Committee on Public Accounts brought forward a motion to permit the Auditor General to release her report whether Parliament was sitting or not.

After months of growing evidence that the Conservatives may have funneled millions of dollars into a Conservative Minister’s riding under the guise of summit spending, it was clear to the Liberal Party that the Auditor General’s report would be of significant public interest.

However, moments before this motion was to pass, the NDP rose to block it, saying they needed 48 hours to review the motion.

Don’t take my word for it — follow the links below to read the relevant section of the committee transcript, and media reports outlining what happened.

Had that motion passed, Sheila Fraser would have had the consent of Parliament to release the report, and Canadians would be heading to the polls with all the facts.

On May 2nd, Canadians will have the opportunity to choose their next government, and the choices have become clear.

On one hand, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are putting families last in line, spending billions on jets, jails and tax breaks for big banks and oil companies, and getting set to slash universal health care to pay for the $11 billion hole in their platform.

On the other hand, the Liberal Party of Canada is the only national party that can replace Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and form a progressive government that puts families first with our “Family Pack” of policies, and unswerving commitment to public health care.

Please take a moment to read the source materials below. With so much at stake, it’s time to choose a Liberal alternative that will protect health care and bring accountable government back to Canada.

Thank you.

Michael Ignatieff



SOURCES

40th PARLIAMENT, 3rd SESSION Standing Committee on Public Accounts EVIDENCE – CONTENTS – Thursday, March 24, 2011
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=5069719&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3#Int-3826365

Failed motion to release AG report during election not ‘respectful’: NDP MP (Postmedia News, April 12, 2011)
http://www2.canada.com/story.html?id=4601992

Fraser launches probe into report leaks (CBC News, April 12, 2011)
http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/politics-canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/12/cv-election-christopherson-ndp-rules-115.html

Liberals call for legal investigation into Conservative misappropriation of G8 slush fund (Liberal.ca, April 20, 2011)
http://www.liberal.ca/newsroom/news-release/liberals-call-legal-investigation-conservative-misappropriation-g8-slush-fund/

Liberals decry hypocrisy of Jack Layton’s proposal after NDP voted with Conservatives to cover up AG’s G8 report (Liberal.ca, April 13, 2011)
http://www.liberal.ca/newsroom/news-release/liberals-decry-hypocrisy-jack-laytons-proposal-ndp-voted-conservatives-cover-ags-g8-report/

The Liberal Family Pack: Our five-point plan to strengthen Canadian families
http://www.liberal.ca/familypack/

Open letter to Canadians on the future of health care from Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (Liberal.ca, April 8, 2011)
http://www.liberal.ca/newsroom/news-release/open-letter-canadians-future-health-care-michael-ignatieff-leader-liberal-party-canada/

This email is a response to your letter sent via Avaaz.org regarding the Auditor General's report. If you would like to receive further updates from the Liberal Party of Canada, please subscribe here.

To contact the Liberal Party of Canada, please reply to this email. Our mailing address: 81 Metcalfe street, suite 600 Ottawa ON K1P 6M8. Authorized by the Federal Liberal Agency of Canada, registered agent for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Has no trust of PM Harper

There are many examples of where trust in our politicians has been questioned. Promises are made and broken within a short time before and after elections are held.

Our most significant and personal example is the complete reversal on the taxation of income trusts which had provided a good retirement income source for our investments.

Stephen Harper had prior to his first election stated that he would not tax income trusts if he were elected, yet within a short time after he was elected and without consultation with the public or businesses completely reversed his promise. This was after the liberal government had canceled their planned taxation of the income trusts because of protests by the opposition Harper Conservatives.

We had worked hard and saved for our retirement only to have a significant portion of it erased overnight. We were not the only ones affected by this decision, as much protest arose across the country from all stakeholders. There was also much talk and investigation of insider trading before the announcement was made.

The long-term effects of this deceit is a reduction in our pension income compounded for the rest of our lives. This is just one of many reasons we will not vote for a party with a leader like Stephen Harper who cannot be trusted and is without question a control freak. It's his way or the highway.

Appearances are deceiving. If you vote for his party don't be surprised by future decisions he makes. I hope those who are in our situation remember the cost and vote for a better alternative!

Ralph Johnston,
Bass River

The Globe and Mail: Your complete source for misinformation

......like quotes wrongly attributed to Stephen Harper....and the constant lies advanced by the Globe and Mail that income trusts cause tax leakage. There ought to be a law....truth in journalism is a myth. The Globe was quick to retract the misquote of Stephen Harper but has yet to set the record straight on Stephen Harper's lie about tax leakage.

‘They dish it but they can’t take it,’ Ignatieff says after Liberals pull Harper quote
BILL CURRY AND JANE TABER
DETTAH, NWT, AND OTTAWA—
Monday, April 18, 2011 12:46PM EDT

The Liberals are escalating their attack on Stephen Harper over the future of health care, portraying complaints from the Conservative war room as a sign of nervousness.

Liberals say they will post an online poll Monday asking Canadians which new Harper quote on health care they should use to replace one that was inaccurate.

“I think they’re nervous. They are under attack for the first time on a fundamental question,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Monday in French. “Do you trust Mr. Harper on health care, yes or no? And I think the answer is no.”

The flurry of activity began in the morning with phone calls from the Conservatives informing reporters travelling with the Liberal Leader that a recent attack ad on health attributes a quote to Mr. Harper that was in fact written by David Somerville, president of the National Citizens Coalition – an organization that Mr. Harper once led.

Mr. Ignatieff responded by saying the source of the quote was The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. The Globe then published a correction Monday related to an Aug. 25, 2010 column that misattributed the quote.

Liberals note the ad has been running for several days without comment from the Conservatives. While all three national parties are promising to continue spending 6 per cent more each year on health transfers to the provinces, Mr. Ignatieff argues the Conservative numbers “don’t ad up” because Mr. Harper has made expensive long term promises related to fighter jets, income splitting, prisons and corporate tax cuts.

The Conservatives counter that they are focused on the economy and a strong economy is the best way to ensure Ottawa has the money to spend on health care. The NDP, for its part, says neither the Conservatives, nor the Liberals can be trusted on the issue.

Mr. Ignatieff noted that the Conservatives have been taking his quotes out of context in ad campaigns for years.

“I’ve had five years of malicious, selective misquotation of my work. But that is no excuse. If there is misquotation in any campaign, then that’s unacceptable. The fact that they did it to me doesn’t make it acceptable,” he said, in relation to the Conservative objections regarding the quote. “I don’t want us to go down this road. They went down that road and I don’t want to go down there with them.”

Yet after saying that, he went on to say the gloves are off at this point in the campaign.

“It’s getting tight. The heat’s on. They dish it out but they can’t take it,” he said. “We’re saying: ‘Gloves off. Let’s have a real serious debate on this issue.’ It’s a fundamental issue. This is about values.”

The Liberals will not be taking the ad off the air, as the Tories demanded.

“We're going to replace the quote with one of the many other comments Stephen Harper has made attacking public health care in Canada – and we've got plenty to choose from,” Ignatieff spokeswoman Leslie Church told The Globe Monday.

“The question for Mr Harper now is whether he stands by the view that the CHA should be ‘replaced’ or ‘overhauled?’”

Ms. Church added that the new ad will be on television by Tuesday.

The original quote – “It’s past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act” – was used by the Liberals in their attack ad, and attributed to Mr. Harper.

The TV spot had been running for six days before the Tories found the misquote. Then they seized upon it, accusing the Liberals of fabricating the line and calling on them to pull the ad.

“There is no excuse – not even the desperation of a flailing campaign – that justifies the Ignatieff decision to take someone else's words and pass them off as Mr. Harper's,” Conservative campaign manager Jenni Byrne said in a statement issued to the press. “Mr. Ignatieff must pull the false ad immediately. His campaign should apologize, not to us, but to Canadians, for trying to mislead them.”

But the Liberals fired back with a series of quotations from Mr. Harper and what they are calling “his controversial views on the Canada Health Act.”

“In 1997, when Harper was vice-president of the National Citizens' Coalition, a group obsessed with privatizing health care, he said: “Well I think it would be a good idea. … Moving toward alternatives, including those provided by the private sector, is a natural development of our health care system.’”

There are other quotes from Mr. Harper, including just last week when he said during the English-language leaders debate: “Governments across this country have experimented with alternative service delivery. … We’re not going to wave the finger at provinces because they experiment with different delivery.”

The ad has caused much consternation in the Tory camp. Even before the Tories started pointing fingers Monday, Conservative campaign manager Jenni Byrne sent a memo to her troops, suggesting that the Liberal attack ad was a sign of desperation.

That was repeated again Monday in the statement sent to reporters. “In a clear sign of desperation, the Ignatieff Liberals are running a TV commercial based on a fabricated quotation,” the Tories charged.

But the Liberals fired back with a series of quotations from Mr. Harper and what they are calling “his controversial views on the Canada Health Act.”

They noted that he was quoted in The Globe and Mail (in August, 2010) and in the Calgary Herald (in May, 2005) saying “it’s past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act.”

“In 1997, when Harper was vice-president of the National Citizens' Coalition, a group obsessed with privatizing health care, he said: “Well I think it would be a good idea. … Moving toward alternatives, including those provided by the private sector, is a natural development of our health care system.’ In another interview that year, Harper said, ‘It's past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act,’ according to the Calgary Herald article.”

There are other quotes from Mr. Harper, including just last week when he said during the English-language leaders debate: “Governments across this country have experimented with alternative service delivery. … We’re not going to wave the finger at provinces because they experiment with different delivery.”

But the Tories are unfazed. “Ignatieff knows that the words belong to David Somerville, not Stephen Harper, because in past the Liberals have correctly attributed the quotation to Somerville (Liberal Party of Canada, “Stephen Harper and the National Citizens' Coalition” (2004), page 5, footnote 20),” the Conservative news release said.

In response to the Tory accusation, an Ignatieff spokeswoman said: “This ad exposes one thing: you can’t trust Stephen Harper on health care. The Conservatives may not like Canadians having this debate about the future of health, but they have a right to know where Stephen Harper stands and how he explains his controversial views on the Canada Health Act.”

The Liberals also note the ad has been up since last Tuesday, and curious why the Tories are only raising the issue now.

Charges of fabrication by the Great Fabricator himself!

Grits shrug off Tory accusation they fabricated Harper quote
Jane Taber
Globe and Mail Update
Monday, April 18, 2011 1

A Liberal attack ad questioning a perceived hidden agenda in the Conservative health-care platform has the Tories aggressively pushing back with accusations the Grits fabricated a quote from Stephen Harper.

The Liberals are dismissing the accusation, arguing the Conservative Leader has been quoted previously musing about private health care.

The disputed quotation attributed to Mr. Harper is: “It’s past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act.” It appears at the beginning of the new Liberal attack ad, titled Health Risk.

The Tories, in a statement released to media covering the Liberal campaign, say Mr. Harper never said it. Rather, the words belong to David Somerville, Mr. Harper’s boss when he worked as vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, a right-wing lobby group.

The ad has caused much consternation in the Tory camp. Even before the Tories started pointing fingers Monday, Conservative campaign manager Jenni Byrne sent a memo to her troops, suggesting that the Liberal attack ad was a sign of desperation.

That was repeated again Monday in the statement sent to reporters. “In a clear sign of desperation, the Ignatieff Liberals are running a TV commercial based on a fabricated quotation,” the Tories charged.

But the Liberals fired back with a series of quotations from Mr. Harper and what they are calling “his controversial views on the Canada Health Act.”

They noted that he was quoted in The Globe and Mail (in August, 2010) and in the Calgary Herald (in May, 2005) saying “it’s past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act.”

“In 1997, when Harper was vice-president of the National Citizens' Coalition, a group obsessed with privatizing health care, he said: “Well I think it would be a good idea. … Moving toward alternatives, including those provided by the private sector, is a natural development of our health care system.’ In another interview that year, Harper said, ‘It's past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act,’ according to the Calgary Herald article.”

There are other quotes from Mr. Harper, including just last week when he said during the English-language leaders debate: “Governments across this country have experimented with alternative service delivery. … We’re not going to wave the finger at provinces because they experiment with different delivery.”

But the Tories are unfazed. “Ignatieff knows that the words belong to David Somerville, not Stephen Harper, because in past the Liberals have correctly attributed the quotation to Somerville (Liberal Party of Canada, “Stephen Harper and the National Citizens' Coalition” (2004), page 5, footnote 20),” the Conservative news release said.

In response to the Tory accusation, an Ignatieff spokeswoman said: “This ad exposes one thing: you can’t trust Stephen Harper on health care. The Conservatives may not like Canadians having this debate about the future of health, but they have a right to know where Stephen Harper stands and how he explains his controversial views on the Canada Health Act.”

The Liberals also note the ad has been up since last Tuesday, and curious why the Tories are only raising the issue now.