The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—The Dan Gagnier drag chute billowed out behind the Liberal campaign yesterday—giving Stephen Harper and Tom Mulcair a badly-needed chance to catch up to the apparent front-runner, Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau, however, gave as good as he got—at least as far as the Conservative leader was concerned—by amping up the outrage over Rob and Doug Ford’s recent appearance on the Tory trail.
Gagnier, the Liberal Party’s campaign co-chairman, abruptly quit his volunteer post Wednesday after The Canadian Press disclosed details of an e-mail in which he provides lobbying advice to an oil pipeline company.
That gave Harper and Mulcair the perfect opportunity to take a swing at a long-standing Achilles’ heel for the Liberals: the sponsorship scandal.
“They can try to put a fresh face on it, but behind the scenes it’s still the same old gang pulling the same old tricks,” said the NDP’s Mulcair, who barely could contain his glee while campaigning in Montreal, where he needs a reversal of fortune.
“You can’t trust the Liberals. It’s the same old Liberal party,” he charged.
Trudeau, Mulcair noted, has been campaigning alongside former Liberal stalwarts Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, who presided over the party during the sponsorship scandal, in which firms won contracts based on donations to the Liberals with little work being done.
Some of the cash was kicked back to Liberal operatives.
Harper, who was in Opposition at the height of the controversy, also seized on the chance to break out some of his greatest hits.
“I think we should all understand that the culture of the Liberal party that gave us the sponsorship scandal has not changed and it will not change,” he said.
Gagnier stepped down after The Canadian Press revealed he had e-mailed officials at TransCanada Corp., the company behind the Energy East pipeline, with advice on how and when to lobby a new government—including a Liberal minority.
For his part, Trudeau said Gagnier’s departure demonstrates that the Liberals “take ethical standards and responsibilities extremely seriously.”
The controversy has the potential to dramatically upend the narrative that had been taking shape during the campaign’s final week, especially in Quebec, where Energy East is a divisive issue.
All of which, of course, is why Trudeau jumped on the chance to drop the most powerful four-letter F-bomb in all of Canadian politics: Ford.
Harper should be “embarrassed that he’s having to count on the support of Rob Ford for his re-election,” Trudeau said.
Former Toronto mayor and current city Coun. Rob Ford, who has admitted to smoking crack cocaine, appeared at a Harper event earlier this week with his brother, Doug, who has admitted smoking marijuana in high school.
“There’s a lot of people talking in the news these days about the hypocrisy of the Fords and their drug problems and Mr. Harper and his positions on that,” Trudeau noted.
“But that’s not really the issue, as serious as it is, that strikes me most,” he added. “What bothers me most is the misogyny.
“The Ford brothers should have no place on a national campaign stage, much less hosting a prime minister at an event this weekend.
“That’s just completely irresponsible of the prime minister,” Trudeau stressed.
