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AG Draft Report: G8 Funding Lacked Transparency


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Where is Fraser saying anything like that? The only public statement I've heard is that the AG won't comment during the campaign and urging caution.

And the Speaker has no role in this. Parliament isn't sitting, so releasing the report is likely pretty much impossible. So this little "He's a Liberal" line is nothing more than a red herring.

My God man, you're just making this up. I cannot believe the lengths partisan supporters go to to try to turn a bad story good.

Per MotherCorp:

"Fraser said in a statement on Monday afternoon the final report cannot be released until Parliament returns, despite all four parties calling for the final document to be made public before the first televised leaders' debate on Tuesday."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-election-ag-report-reaction-1244.html#

What does Oda have to do with this?

Is it really your defence of all of this that voters are semi-retarded amnesiacs? Is that what it amounts to?

No, it's just that these micro-scandals are actually much-ado about nothing and it's completely turned a large segment of voters off the Liberal message. You keep crying wolf and people will stop caring. Even if this turns out to be a big enough issue to consider, people won't care because of all the other non-scandals that Iggy and co. have raised hell over.

Voters are in general idiots though. That is true. Most people don't have the level of understanding necessary to really understand the implications of various proposed policies.

Just wait...the big one hasn't broken in the news yet...

PM Harper was seen drinking milk from a carton after the expiration date! ;)

Show that he is, in fact, a robot?

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Per MotherCorp:

"Fraser said in a statement on Monday afternoon the final report cannot be released until Parliament returns, despite all four parties calling for the final document to be made public before the first televised leaders' debate on Tuesday."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-election-ag-report-reaction-1244.html#

Yes, I just saw that. It still doesn't mean that the draft has nothing to do with the final report.

No, it's just that these micro-scandals are actually much-ado about nothing and it's completely turned a large segment of voters off the Liberal message. You keep crying wolf and people will stop caring. Even if this turns out to be a big enough issue to consider, people won't care because of all the other non-scandals that Iggy and co. have raised hell over.

I think people are going to care, or rather, key voters in swing ridings are going to care. I think this will be enough to deprive the Tories of a majority, which sets them up for an ultimate loss of government at the end of May.

Voters are in general idiots though. That is true. Most people don't have the level of understanding necessary to really understand the implications of various proposed policies.

But this isn't an issue of policy, per se, it's an issue of mounting evidence that the Tories have their own ethical issues, and just as importantly, that in every respect they hold their obligations to Parliament with contempt.

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Capricorn, While it is true that this gives the Bloc, NDP and Liberals even more ammunition, I would think that as a Canadian you would be upset that these are YOUR tax dollars that are being spent by a group of people who include the General Manager of a resort! We had a lenghty discussion about some of the expenditures a while back, the Sidewalk that covered most of the hydrants and the gazebo jump to mind right now. According to the list, things installed 100km away from the site.... wow. If I was a CPC voter, this would give me a definite pause.

Pause to do what? Change my vote? Not a chance. In fact my determination to vote Conservative is cemented. I guess you could say I'm for jets, jails and tax cuts. :)

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Pause to do what? Change my vote? Not a chance. In fact my determination to vote Conservative is cemented. I guess you could say I'm for jets, jails and tax cuts. :)

Right on, Bro. But I disagree with the jails.

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Just wait...the big one hasn't broken in the news yet...

PM Harper was seen drinking milk from a carton after the expiration date! ;)

You know, I've sided with the Harpists with regards to the thinness of the scandals that are attributed to him, until now. The G8/G20 thing was big news in Toronto which is a key battleground.

This could be hurtful to him, unlike the Bev Oda or the expired milk scandal.

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Do people generally vote against surplus funds going to their community?

That's like Quebec condemning Chretien when all that money was mispent and loaned under questionable pretense in Shawinigan.

People know where their bread is buttered. I don't agree with it. But it's hard to really create anger amongst the beneficiaries.

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Duceppe scored today demanding Harper release the report.

They can't legally release it during the campaign, obviously the reason only a portion of the draft copy was released - hmmmm illegally... Convenient timing by whoever leaked it knowing the final version couldn't be released. B)

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20110411/ag-says-tories-misinformed-parliament-on-g8-fund-110411/20110411?s_name=election2011

Good points here from a blogger

http://trustytorytwo.blogspot.com/2011/04/leaked-ag-report-load-of-crap.html

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Quite hopefully a coalition.

I hope so too, but for an entirely different reason! I truly believe there are a large number of voters like me, who would NEVER forgive the Liberals and the NDP if they formed a "coalition of the losers". If it happened, those parties may suffer a hurt that would take generations to heal.

I could be wrong. Perhaps few if any fellow Canadians would care. Whatever! I can think whatever I want. They're not my dice and I'm not the one who would suffer from a bad decision.

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I think the "member of the opposition party" who stole the report will be in some trouble before long. I'm sure there's a law somewhere that this person has broken. And I would imagine that Sheila Fraser will deal harshly with the person who was in cahoots with the opposition party.

It really depends on the source of the leak. It's possible that the draft could have been delivered to a third party for some other reason, and the leak happened there. It's clear the AG is unhappy, but the whole thing puts the Tories in an impossible position.

Yes, that person will be in big trouble, as he or she should be, but if it was a calculated risk, in the grand scheme it could be effective. I still think it's going to kill the Tories chances in key ridings and deprive them of even a slim majority.

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Right on, Bro. But I disagree with the jails.

Ah, but "jets, jails and tax cuts" are not my words RNG. Those are words crafted by the opposition and bandied about mainly by Liberals to describe the Conservative party and their supporters. I'm not so naive as to think a political party can offer me everything I want and represent everything I believe in. Right now, the Conservatives come closest to my ideals.

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Found this on the web in a readers comment posted to the National Post. Which ones had to do with the G20 again?

• Muskoka Tourism gateway signs: $408,000

• Muskoka Tourism visitor information centre: $260,000

• Road improvements: $1,800,000

• Jack Garland North Bay Airport improvements: $3,510,745

• Highway 11 upgrades: $350,000

• Bracebridge Sportsplex emergency backup: $40,000

• Gateway signage: $150,000

• Annie Williams Park upgrades: $500,000

• Dowtown Bracebridge revitalization: $800,000

• Downtown Gravenhurst revitalization: $1,200,000

• Hunstville beautification and lighting: $106,100

• Port Sydney Beautification: $250,000

• Reconstruction of Deerhurst Drive: $1,989,088

• University of Waterloo G8 Centre expansion: $9,750,000

• G8 Centre: $17,110,912

• Town of Kearny Main Street beautification: $730,000

• Parry Sound beautification: $178,000

• Parry Sound downtown streetscaping: $1,143,750

• Town of Sundridge pedestrian crossing: $125,000

• Beautification of Sundridge: $750,000

• Burk’s Falls Town Centre improvements: $150,000

• Port Severn Gateway feature signage: $1,000,000

• Port Severn streetscape/linear parks: $1,000,000

• Roofed heritage plaque in Baysville: $38,500

• Baysville Community streetscape improvements: $117,000

• Lake of Bays Band Shell and public WC: $299,850

• Muskoka Lakes tourism signage: $250,000

• Bala Falls Road updgrades: $386,000

• Paignton House Road upgrades: $424,000

• Township of Perry road improvements: $100,000

• Seguin Township beautification/streetscapes: $745,000

• South River Community Beautification: $65,000

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"I strongly caution the public to wait until our final report on the G8 Legacy Infrastructure Fund has been tabled in Parliament and made public," Fraser said.

"Sometimes during the process of fact validation, additional information is brought to our attention. Only the final report that is tabled in Parliament represents our audit findings and conclusions."

So.....the headline should read:

"Auditor urges caution in wake of leaked report"

Do you think that's what the Star and the Globe will print? ;)

Edited by Keepitsimple
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I think people are going to care, or rather, key voters in swing ridings are going to care. I think this will be enough to deprive the Tories of a majority, which sets them up for an ultimate loss of government at the end of May.

But this isn't an issue of policy, per se, it's an issue of mounting evidence that the Tories have their own ethical issues, and just as importantly, that in every respect they hold their obligations to Parliament with contempt.

You might be right, TB. Maybe it will be another minority. Still, I wouldn't count Harper out yet. After all, it would appear that Canadians have become so disgusted with politicians in general that they now take a certain amount of corruption as normal! They've become numb to it.

Harper still has a huge lead in the polls and the mix has changed in his favour. He's lost popular support in areas where he had an excess and he's gained it in provinces like Ontario and NFLD, where he can gain seats.

So I would think it's still too early to predict much of anything.

The only new factor I've seen is Ignatieff's surprising improvement as a campaigner! Mind you, it doesn't take much to look more down to earth and approachable than stiff, wooden Harper but beyond that, Ignatieff really seems to be more comfortable and easy going, which will only help him at the polls. It seems Gwiz was right, that once the writ was dropped Ignatieff would get a chance to shine.

I don't he has a chance in hell of shining through 10 or 12 points of Harper's lead to defeat him but it may not be the total rout it first appeared.

At any rate, I think a lot of MLW members are going to look like partisan fools for the lack of objectivity in their predictions. It should be great fun reminding them after the election! As I like to say, "If my granny had wheels she wouldn't hop when she got on a bus", or whatever! :P

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The constant non-scandal "scandals" that the opposite kept bringing up every couple weeks has muted their appeal to the electorate now. I imagine most people are saying, "oh ya, ANOTHER scandal that will turn out to be nothing," and just tuning out.

They've been doing it for years. Every time some silly little thing comes up you can see how gleeful and excited the opposition supporter are here, hoping that THIS will be the thing to stop people voting Conservative.

If only any of them had a good reason why we should vote FOR them, instead of NOT voting for the Tories.

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Meh... I wonder what the Goodale headline should have been.
Ironically, Goodale may help the conservatives here because they can point to the ultimate exoneration as a reason to take these kinds of revelations in mid campaign with a huge grain of salt.
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You might be right, TB. Maybe it will be another minority. Still, I wouldn't count Harper out yet. After all, it would appear that Canadians have become so disgusted with politicians in general that they now take a certain amount of corruption as normal! They've become numb to it.

Harper still has a huge lead in the polls and the mix has changed in his favour. He's lost popular support in areas where he had an excess and he's gained it in provinces like Ontario and NFLD, where he can gain seats.

So I would think it's still too early to predict much of anything.

Possibly, but the Tories went into this under the cloud that all in all, they have little room to grow, and I think the polls show that. With some regional changes, it still looks a lot like the lead up to the 2008 vote, and that's got to be troubling Tory strategists. What if the very best they can hope for is a minority or a very narrow majority? Is it the leader that's the problem? Is it because they moved too far to the centre, or haven't moved far enough?

The only new factor I've seen is Ignatieff's surprising improvement as a campaigner! Mind you, it doesn't take much to look more down to earth and approachable than stiff, wooden Harper but beyond that, Ignatieff really seems to be more comfortable and easy going, which will only help him at the polls. It seems Gwiz was right, that once the writ was dropped Ignatieff would get a chance to shine.

He's certainly done better than expected, but as you say, that may be in comparison to Harper, who just isn't that strong a campaigner, and only comes off as strained when he throws on a sweater and tries to act like Joe Average.

Still, if campaign zest wins elections, you would think the NDP would be beating everyone. Say what you will about Layton, but even crippled up, the guy has more stamina and charisma than all the other leaders combined, and yet there looks to be a real risk that a good many gains the Liberals may get will be at the expense of the NDP.

I don't he has a chance in hell of shining through 10 or 12 points of Harper's lead to defeat him but it may not be the total rout it first appeared.

At any rate, I think a lot of MLW members are going to look like partisan fools for the lack of objectivity in their predictions. It should be great fun reminding them after the election! As I like to say, "If my granny had wheels she wouldn't hop when she got on a bus", or whatever! :P

For me, if there's a partisan position, I've felt that a Tory minority is best, and barring that, the Tories find a way to get the NDP to support them. I'm less keen to a Liberal or Liberal-lead government.

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Just on the ctv newsnet loop, bob fife has the february draft which has no mention of illegal and misleading/contempt of parliament. However, the report is critical of spending, as was already known in the msm throughout the summer.

Yeah. Supposedly, that February draft was leaked by a Conservative.

And a new twist is developing. I've read comments on media articles saying the January draft report was actually leaked by a Conservative to bait the opposition into knee jerk reactions.

It's a good thing Ignatieff qualified his earlier reaction by adding "if true". :lol:

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Yeah. Supposedly, that February draft was leaked by a Conservative.

And a new twist is developing. I've read comments on media articles saying the January draft report was actually leaked by a Conservative to bait the opposition into knee jerk reactions.

It's a good thing Ignatieff qualified his earlier reaction by adding "if true". :lol:

And a new twist. The AG is now accusing the Tories of having taken a quote out of context to claim that she said that the G8/G20 summits was "money well spent", when in fact the quote was lifted from a report to a previous Liberal government.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-election-weston-ag-fraser.html

So as the Tories cheer that they may only be pathetic managers of the public funds instead of out-and-out scoundrels, it seems that ethics is still a problem.

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Found this on the web in a readers comment posted to the National Post. Which ones had to do with the G20 again?

• Muskoka Tourism gateway signs: $408,000

Is there anything wrong with trying to bequeath a community some material lasting benefit, in the form of positive exposure, from the happenstance of a major event happening in the area? Hosting these events is far from painless.

Further, to the event that the Huntsville/Muskoka area becomes an international draw (even to Americans) it benefits Canada.

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Is there anything wrong with trying to bequeath a community some material lasting benefit, in the form of positive exposure, from the happenstance of a major event happening in the area? Hosting these events is far from painless.

Further, to the event that the Huntsville/Muskoka area becomes an international draw (even to Americans) it benefits Canada.

There's nothing wrong with it and of itself, providing, of course, it's done appropriately. It's hard to see how things done thirty or forty miles away can be justified that way, however.

Edited by ToadBrother
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