I smell a rat.....

Upon hearing the news today that Chretien was giving up the ghost on his court challenge to replace Justice Gomery, I was somewhat perplexed. After all, isn't the Shawinigan Strangler a self-professed street fighter who is not afraid of a fight and doesn't back down easily?

Why, after so much effort and noise, has he decided to back off now?

Is there something that we Canadians are missing here? Why does this just not fit?

I smell a rat.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul

What a difference a day makes in politics.

Yesterday Stephen Harper was bearing down on the Liberals full bore. Today, Belinda Stronach has taken the wind out of his sails. Martin has pulled the proverbial rabbit out of his hat and may be ready to conclude his magic act on Thursday. All he has left to do is deal with that weasel Kilgour. (Just add that to the bill, OK Paul?)

But the neglected angle to this dramatic development has to be the personal one. What will become of Belinda and Peter MacKay now that Martin has had his way with her? The report in the Globe and Mail today was terse but revealing:

By Monday evening, Ms. Stronach and Mr. Martin were working out a deal over dinner.

After that meeting, she called deputy Tory Leader Peter MacKay, to whom she had been romantically linked, and told him what had happened.

Mr. MacKay was gobsmacked, said one of his confidants. He picked up the phone and broke the news to Mr. Harper on Tuesday morning.

Gobsmacked?

A Wild Rose by any other name ......

We haven't seen much of the western separatists recently, but the surge in separatism in Quebec generated by Chretien's sponsorship scandal appears to bringing these guys out of hibernation.

Bob Mills, Tory MP for Red Deer, said some of his constituents are contemplating separatism and may have no other choice should the federal Liberals win the next election. Mills confirmed his constituents are again musing about separation:

"You hear that. You hear ... 'How could they continue to elect criminals?' That's the step right now. What might happen later, who knows."

Congratulations, Jean. Your place in history may yet include becoming the father of several contiguous countries!

Guess which party the majority of recent judicial appointments donated to?

If you guessed Liberal, welcome to a penetrating glimpse into the obvious.

Remember last month when Paul Martin vigorously defended the process for naming judges, after testimony at the Gomery inquiry suggested the appointments were used as payoffs to Liberal lawyers?

Well, apparently more than 60 per cent of recent federal judicial appointments in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan in the last five years donated exclusively to the Liberal party in the three to five years before their appointments.

Interviews with well-connected members of the legal community, including Liberals, a search of news data bases, and Elections Canada political contribution records, establish that in the past five years a majority of the 93 lawyers who were appointed to the Federal Court, the Ontario Superior Court, and the Courts of Queen's Bench of Alberta and Saskatchewan had associations with the governing Liberals.

More than 70 per cent of those appointed since 2000 to the Ontario Superior Court by Cotler and his predecessors, Anne McLellan and Martin Cauchon, donated money only to the Liberal Party of Canada. Forty of 56 lawyers gave just to the Liberals...

...The situation was similar in Alberta. Seven of the 13 lawyers (54 per cent) appointed to the federal bench in 2000 or later donated solely to the Liberals. None of the lawyers appointed donated solely to the Conservatives...

...High-profile Liberals appointed to the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench included John J. Gill, co-chair of election readiness in Alberta for the Liberals in 2004; Vital Ouellette, who ran unsuccessfully for the provincial Liberals in Lac La Biche-St. Paul in 1997 and 2001; federal Liberal candidate Bryan Mahoney, who lost twice to Conservative Myron Thompson in the riding of Wild Rose; and Liberal fundraiser Marsha Colleen Erb, Calgary co-chair in 1999 of the exclusive Laurier Club, where membership is based on donations of $1,000 or more to the Liberal party. Erb was appointed by her friend, then-justice minister Anne McLellan...

...11 of the 17 judges appointed to the trial level of the Ottawa based Federal Court were found to have ties to the Liberals.

So what happened to Chretien's famous promise to clean up the Mulroney patronage machine? Its looking more and more like part of Jean's legacy includes making Mulroney look like a piker by comparison.

This is not to say that you have to be a Liberal to be a judge. But it can't hurt.

To paraphrase an old saying: "Not all horse thieves are Liberal, but all Liberals are horse thieves."

Has the Liberal disease now tainted judicial appointments even in Alberta?

From today's Edmonton Sun:

Lawyer donated to Grits before judicial posting
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN OTTAWA BUREAU

A Liberal-friendly lawyer who was called to the bench six months after helping run the Grit Alberta campaign also pitched in financially to the party.

John Gill, who served as co-chair of the 2004 federal campaign, was appointed judge of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta in January.

Elections Canada records show he made donations to the Liberals in the last few years, including $763 in 1998, $828 in 2000 and $340 in 2003.

Gill's former law firm, Edmonton-based McCuaig Des-rochers, also gave thousands of dollars in donations to the Liberals, records show.

The NDP has raised concerns about the appointment on the heels of high-profile work on the federal campaign, but Gill declined to respond to the concerns.

"I can't comment," he told Sun Media.

"Sorry, I can't talk about it.

"That's part of the job - you don't talk about things. I've got nothing to say about it, basically."

Allegations of political interference in the judiciary have been swirling after Benoit Corbeil, a former president of the Liberal party's Quebec wing, suggested several lawyers who volunteered their services in the 2000 campaign were named judges in return.

In the Commons yesterday, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper demanded an investigation in the wake of revelations the Liberal party had "corrupted the system of nominating, vetting and appointing judges."

Susan McGrath, president of the Canadian Bar Association, said the majority of candidates called to the bench are exceptional. But she said the process could be made more credible if the government selected names only from the pool deemed "highly recommended" by the independent advisory committee.

Chretien and Corriveau -- fairweather friends?

Chuck Guite's testimony became public today. Among the many interesting tidbits was this assessment of Chretien's relationship with Jacques Corriveau.

Guite claimed that he was constantly being told to help out the Libranos such as Corriveau by steering huge contracts their way. Accused of exploiting a personal relationship with former prime minister Jean Chretien, Corriveau has denied the two were close.

During his testimony, Guite said that in 1994, then-public works minister David Dingwall told him a different story.

"If you ever meet someone in bed between Jean Chretien and his wife, it'll be Corriveau," recalling Dingwall's remarks. "His comment was, you'll look after him."

Somebody is lying. Gomery's job just keeps getting harder and harder.

Truth in advertising...

Why did the (Canadian) chicken cross the road?

CalgaryGrit posted this humourous look at the age old question:

Paul Martin: “Let me be perfectly clear: I am going to get to the
bottom of why that chicken crossed the road, come hell or high water!”

Stephen Harper: “I am going to consult with Canadians to see why they think the chicken crossed the road. Only after I have listened to Canadians will I be in a position to judge whether or not this chicken crossed the road.”

Jack Layton: “I’m not here to talk about the chicken. I’m here to talk about making Parliament work. A Kyoto plan, clean air, post-secondary education, these are the issues Canadians care about, not some chicken.”

Gilles Ducceppe: “The chicken crossing the road is a sign dat fe-dee-RAW-lism is broken.”

Scott Brison: “Let Judge Gomery report and then we will know for certain why that chicken crossed the road.”

Belinda Stronach: “It’s about growing the economy…sorry, what was the question again?”

David Herle: “Let’s call an overpriced inquiry into why the chicken crossed the road, paying particular attention to any information that could damage the Liberal brand. Then we can truly differ ourselves from our predecessor.”