Liberals woo ethnic vote with taxpayer $$

[Gone_Fishin]

Very interesting poll results Fisher. There's an awful lot of gloating on here about how the NDP are going to win almost every seat but it very well may be a lot closer than the gloaters think.

I find it rather interesting that those who weren't in diapers during the NDP's reign of terror in the 1990s favour the Liberals.

[Urbane]

I find it rather interesting that those who weren't in diapers during the NDP's reign of terror in the 1990s favour the Liberals.

Indeed! They know that those golden years weren't so golden!

[Smurf]

Urbane please tell me that you don't actually believe there is even a comparison between the Liberals planning to use government money and resources for party benefits, all the time deliberately using personal emails to avoid detection or any information trail while the NDP were totally open, went to the "Liberal" comptroller, got his blessings and kept totally open books on what they were doing.

Were they both wrong I believe so. Is there truly any similarity in the depth of their actions and their attempts to decieve the electorate. I don't believe so and i don't believe you do either.

[Gone_Fishin]

The NDP misused $460,000 while the Liberals misused $70,000 Smurf. The NDP never got the okay to use the money for partisan purposes, so drop the argument that they "got permission" to do what they did. You tell me which is the worse misuse - $460,000 or $70,000. Neither is good, but to say misusing $460,000 is okay compared to $70,000 is a real stretch.

And Smurf, I'd like to hear your view on the two leadership styles dealing with this. CC fired people. AD has hidden from the issue. Who's the better leader based on their respective actions in dealing with this, in your view?

[Smurf]

Please show me a report that proves any of the NDP funds were used for something that was not approved by the comptroller. As I understand it the auditor generals draft was even changed because he realized it was all approved.


As far as i can see the NDP tried to be totally open and got approval for what they did. The money was used for something it was not actually meant for but it was with the blessing of the Liberal who approved the funds.

Again please show me anything that proves different.

[Gone_Fishin]

The report was not changed on that point. The funds were used for partisan purposes. Don't get confused by what some NDP supporters have posted trying to deflect from the wrongdoing. Doyle accepted the Comptroller's approval to set up the fund, he did not accept the ultimate use of those funds for partisan activities.

Waiting for your analysis of the two leadership styles in dealing with wrongdoing within their respective parties.

[Smurf]

Waiting for your proof that Doyle says the funds were not ultimately used for what they were approved for. All I have seen was they were not used for local constituancy office purposes but were used for things approved by the comptroller. Please show me where there is proof of something different as I definately have not seen it.

[Smurf]

If and I say if the NDP used the money for purposes not approved by the comptroller why would Christy not investigate them. It is a huge opportunity to make the NDP look bad. I believe it is probably because they were up front about what they were doing and there is nothing to investgate. Time will tell.

[Logitack]

the liberals lied once again

the fact is it isnt in doyle report that was released yesterday.

doyle was on cknw and cbc making it a point that the DRAFT report was for managment to give a response and that the info provided by the ndp was sufficent and that doyle was satisfied. thats why he didnt INCLUDE it in his report.

on the other hand he DID report about the money expended by vernon MLA in the renovation of the office building where his constituency office is housed was ILLEGAL. now this IS in doyles report that WAS released yesterday.

in addition the money in the 600 thousand range given to FOUR clerks of the legislature that were questionable and possible illegal since taxes were not withheld. all of this under the liberal watch AND approved by the speaker of the house!

[Urbane]

the liberals lied once again

the fact is it isnt in doyle report that was released yesterday.

doyle was on cknw and cbc making it a point that the DRAFT report was for managment to give a response and that the info provided by the ndp was sufficent and that doyle was satisfied. thats why he didnt INCLUDE it in his report.

on the other hand he DID report about the money expended by vernon MLA in the renovation of the office building where his constituency office is housed was ILLEGAL. now this IS in doyles report that WAS released yesterday.

in addition the money in the 600 thousand range given to FOUR clerks of the legislature that were questionable and possible illegal since taxes were not withheld. all of this under the liberal watch AND approved by the speaker of the house!

At the risk of beating a dead horse, many of us have pointed out the realities of politics (particularly in BC) where there are no angels and yet some of you just keep pointing out the weaknesses (some real and some not) of one party. You might want to look at your own party and question some of their methods/tactics/policies as well. Just a friendly suggestion of course!

[George+]

The Liberals have a major screw up to deal with.
It will haunt every MLA throughout the campaign.

[maryjane48]

i look at it this way , i did not want harper to win the last election, but i was smart enough to know the other parties did not have a chance ,and accepted it, same thing here, all the lib supporters on here are crying spilled milk, like it is the ndp fault the libs going to lose.

[flamingfingers]

Vaughn Palmer connects the dots:

Blamelines in ethnic outreach debacle run straight to premier

By VAUGHN PALMER, VANCOUVER SUN COLUMNIST March 15, 2013 5:07 AM

VICTORIA - The plan to use public money to help the B.C. Liberal party raise support in ethnic communities was launched from Premier Christy Clark’s own office, backed up by members of her inner circle.

So says the report of a two-week-long investigation into the proposed multicultural strategic outreach plan, conducted by four senior deputy ministers and released Thursday in the provincial capital.

Ground zero for the strategy was a meeting convened by Clark’s deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad on Dec. 1 of 2011, and attended by public servants, political staff and a representative of the B.C. Liberal party.

The intention was “to capture current activities of the attendees related to multiculturalism,” and to “bring better coordination” among government, the caucus of Liberal MLAs and the party itself.

From the outset, the proceedings were compromised by a mixing of public interest and private partisan political interests, say the four deputies.

“At this meeting, confidential information was shared with invited members of government caucus and with a party staff person. The brainstorming that occurred at that meeting found its way into a partisan document that was then freely shared between government employees and caucus and party members. Both of these activities were clearly inappropriate.”

Now stop to consider the originators of this dubious strategy. Haakstad is a longtime supporter, friend and confidant of the premier’s, as fully attuned as anyone to Clark’s heavily partisan way of doing business.

Others in attendance included Pamela Martin, the former broadcaster who backed Clark for the leadership, then was rewarded with the post of her director of outreach; and Lorne Mayencourt, another Clark leadership supporter then serving time in a Clark-created sinecure.

But the key player in the meeting would appear to have been Brian Bonney, a government communications director and a former business leader who’d backed Clark for the party leadership.

“I decided Christy Clark was the person I had to support,” he told reporter Brent Richter of Burnaby Now in early 2011, “and I don’t do anything small so I went out and did it in a big way.”

Installed in a public service communications posting later that year, Bonney was well positioned to serve as Haakstad’s point man on the party-boosting ethnic outreach plan, and he proceeded to do just that.

The deputies reckon he spent up to half of his time on party work, even as he collected $124,000 in public funds in two communications postings in the public service.

They caught him forwarding more than 1,000 messages to his personal email accounts, pulling together lists of contacts from the ethnic community, bypassing ministerial chains of command, and running a secretive recruiting operation for consultants who would then serve as liaisons to the designated ethnic communities, all the while telling the would-be recruits never to let on that they even knew him.

The backchannel was critical because, as Liberal MLA (and briefly minister for multiculturalism) John Yap confessed to the investigators, it allowed the team to avoid public scrutiny under the provincial access to information law.

One of Bonney’s associates in the recruiting drive commented via email about the critical importance of keeping the operation under wraps: “It is absolutely critical that we do not leave any evidence of us helping them through this application.”

That brought another telling response from Yap: “I appreciate your efforts. Great job. Let’s now hope for the best.”

So, to summarize, one Liberal staffer calls for a coverup and the minister fires back with an attaboy.

The four deputies, led by head of public service John Dyble, appear to have dug up as much information as they could in relatively short order, while leaving open further avenues of inquiry by the independent watchdogs on access to information and provincial finances.

Full credit to them as well for laying this shabby affair on the premier’s doorstep, much as Christy Clark would have preferred to see the blamelines run in any direction but her own.

Trying to put the best face on the findings in the legislature Thursday, the premier claimed “the reason that members of the Opposition and any member of the public has a report from which to quote is because ... I asked the head of the civil service to review it.”

Pure guff.

The reason for the report is because somebody leaked a draft of the strategy to the New Democrats. Nor was Clark all that quick in her drive to get to the bottom of it.

Two days after the Opposition blew the whistle, she was still insisting that any mixing of public money and partisan interests “didn’t happen in this case” and the whole thing was a product of “somebody way down the chain.”
Both claims have now been refuted by her own officials.

Haakstad resigned two weeks ago. Bonney left earlier and the party has now agreed to repay half of his salary. Another staffer implicated in the report resigned Thursday. Other discipline should follow.

But the culture of crass, partisan evasion remains very much on display in the Clark administration, starting with the person at the very top of the chain.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vaughn ... z2NcKSYXvf

[George+]

The culture of crass, partisan evasion remains very much on display in the Clark administration, starting with the person at the very top of the chain.

VERY much so.

[Veovis]

i look at it this way , i did not want harper to win the last election, but i was smart enough to know the other parties did not have a chance ,and accepted it, same thing here, all the lib supporters on here are crying spilled milk, like it is the ndp fault the libs going to lose.

The sad part of it is it isn't the NDP's fault the Liberals will lose the next election. It is the Liberals fault.

Now shouldn't it be the NDP's fault, by being a BETTER option, not simply the OTHER option? I think it should be, and neither party is held to an acceptable standard of behavior.

Sadly the NDP will win because of the Liberals and not their own capability to be a good choice for BC.