April 12, 2005

Kissing Cousins in Scandal

The Gomery inquiry is likely to be daily news through May 17th. Never before has Canada seen a scandal of this magnitude. Every day new revelations shake the confidence of Canadians and raise the question of whether the Liberals can be trusted to govern and when they may be held to account. Their defence is to call for patience and urge voters to wait until all the evidence is in and Gomery reports out. That is a reasonable request as long as it doesn't take too many more months; nothing, however will postpone the provincial election.

The Campbell Liberals urge voters to draw a distinction between them and their kissing cousins in Ottawa. BC has its own scandal that will be kept secret from voters until at least the end of May, after the election. Never before was a search warrant served on legislative precincts, reaching into the suite of the Minister of Finance and to the computer system that backs-up all government emails. Of course all of the parties that have been named in the raid on the BC Legislature must be presumed innocent. What is relevant for the May 17th election is that there are unanswered questions regarding the privatization of BC Rail, and that solid links between the federal Liberals and the provincial Liberals were revealed in the course of the investigation. Some of Prime Minister Martin's key operatives in British Columbia were touched by the BC raid. Those links mean that the sponsorship scandal does more than tarnish a common brand name shared by the provincial and federal parties. Those links mean that voters are constantly reminded that some key provincial Liberals are also federal Liberals and that BC has its own scandal that is dragging through the courts. It also means that Campbell's campaign staff and volunteers are keeping an eye on the possibility of a federal election when they will be at each other's throats as the Conservatives attempt to link as many federal Liberals as possible to the sponsorship scandal. If Campbell had not established a fixed election date, there might be speculation on a fall window for a provincial election.