Greens see red over RCMP - are the other parties just yellow?

Does anyone else find it odd that of all the political parties, it's only the Greens who are crying foul over whether the RCMP meddled in the last election campaign?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper used to be quite vocal about his suspicions of political interference in the RCMP. For instance, here's what he said in November, 2005, weeks before the election, about how the RCMP had handled the investigation into the Liberal sponsorship affair.

"The police and the authorities have to do their job but I have a sneaking suspicion that this job would be done much more effectively and much more quickly if the Liberal party were not in power...  I'm perplexed, I'm disturbed and I think most Canadians are, that quite frankly the prosecutions have not proceeded farther along and have not been more successful."

These days, however, neither the Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats or Bloc Quebecois seem very interested in pursuing the fact that Guiliano Zaccardelli refused to assist in the probe into what happened in the 2005-06 election campaign - when he apparently specifically instructed staff to mention the name of Ralph Goodale in the bombshell news release.

Comments

[peter]

Exactly. Good for May, but I do wonder about about Dion and Layton -- noting, of course, the naive complcity of the NDP in doing the Tory dirty work in the first place -- i.e. the original complaint to the RCMP.

This looks to be gift wrapped for the Liberals. Give it to Bob Rae if the leader can't figure out what to do with it.

Liberals? These guys re losing the brand.

[mark]

I applaud the Greens keeping this issue alive and in the minds of Canadians. There is no doubt in my mind that Harper, the puppet master of all, is behind this. Refusal to speak follows a pattern that all neo-cons have been instructed to follow: treat voters like mushrooms. Feed them b.s. and keep them in the dark. Harper's tight reins have smothered any thought provoking commentary or potential controversy. Goebels would be pleased.

[Riley Hennessey]

I wish people in the media, including this blog, would stop pretending that somehow the RCMP caused the Liberals to lose the last election.

First it was the NDP that caused them to lose, then it was the sponsorships scandal, then it was the boogeyman Harper, then it was Dion's dog kyoto..... and then and then blah blah blah.

Should the RCMP have released that info? Prob not... but a lot was going on at the time and it wasn't just ONE single thing that caused the election result. It was 13 years of things.

[Wascally Wabbit]

The whole thing smacks of the brown manila envelope from an anonymous source routine that got Greg Sorbara sidelined for best part of a year (and probably contributed to his taking a pass on a Cabinet position this time around).
No-one seemed willing to pursue who that source was...although even non-partisan thinkers had to look into the ranks of the Provincial Tory machine and think...Hmmmmmmmm!

[John W]

Of course, the NDP steered so far off its historic course and heritage and actually initiated this investigation by writing the RCMP asking for it.

Old time CCF/NDP warriors must have been rolling in the graves, and even some living ones appalled as they recalled their long history of persecution and surveillance at the hands of police from all levels.

As well as forever tarnishing the reputation of Ralph Goodale, and having at least some influence on the election, the incident represents an historic turning point in the history of the NDP party and movement. Political gamesmanship an infighting trumps principle and that was, as they say, the day the music died.