Is there a trend here?

Look at things over the long term, and you start to see a pattern:

* Former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney is accused of an improper relationship with German-Canadian businessman Karl-Heinz Schreiber in the 1990s and immediately alleges that it's a plot by the Liberals and the CBC, in part, to do him in. It takes about a decade to get past the blame-the-messenger business and have a public inquiry called into the whole affair.

* During a Commons committee hearing last fall into this controversy, a Liberal MP asks Mulroney if he has held meetings with then-Industry Minister Maxime Bernier to discuss the auction of wireless-telephone airwaves.  This line of questioning gets totally sidetracked when a CBC reporter is accused of planting those questions with the Liberals. The CBC reporter is reassigned, the Conservatives cry victory and it isn't until months later we get past the blame-the-messenger business to learn there was some substance to the questioning (Globe and Mail article, requires subscription).

* This week, the RCMP raids the Conservative party headquarters and the government alleges a Liberal-CBC plot once again.  Conservatives  ask: how did the CBC get tipped to the presence of RCMP officers at the Albert St. building? They want to know: how did the Liberals get there with video cameras so quickly? (Dion and Liberal aides say they got the tip through sources close to their office televisions. They saw Susan Bonner's report and ran over, as we at the Star did too.)

Presumably, if the pattern holds, we'll get past this blame-the-messenger noise as well,  to focus on the substance of the Conservative dispute with Elections Canada.

And a  couple of other, related updates:

* We now know that the announcement of Gen. Rick Hillier's resignation was pushed up a day - it was supposed to come Wednesday, the general told CanWest columnist Don Martin, but it was evidently rushed out on Tuesday to push the raid to the sidelines of the news agenda. See Martin's interview with CBC Newsworld's Don Newman (video available for seven days after Tuesday's broadcast) for a bit of insight into how he ended up talking to Hillier in advance of the announcement. Kudos to the Conservatives if that was the plan  - many newspapers, including the Star, played up the Hillier story  at the expense of the story on the raid.

* Also on  Tuesday night,  as the wild news day wound down, CTV held a large, swanky party in Ottawa to mark 50 years of local broadcasting. It was a wildly successful party, with an open bar and A-list guests. The Prime Minister and a large group of Conservatives attended.  It seems doubtful that a similar, CBC gathering would have the same kind of draw in Ottawa these days. Of course, it would also be inappropriate for the taxpayer-financed  broadcaster to host a similarly lavish gathering.   

Comments

[bob ward]

It would also be "in appropriate" for CBC brass to spending tens of thousands of dollars on hotels and bar tabs when they travel.

Face it you are a LIBERAL apologist.

[Mark-Alan Whittle]

Seems elections Canada has a lot of explaining to do, truth be told.

If they wanted files all they had to do was ask, according to the government they have been fully compliant with the law.

If Elections Canada has policy that you could drive a truck through as I suspect they want to be pre-emptive, before they face the government in court over the interpretation of their flawed policy.

Funny thing is, the NDP, Liberals and all the other political parties spread the cost of national advertising campaigns to the ridings and candidates it supports.

Why hasn't Elections Canada raided the Liberals offices or the NDP's offices as they are just as "guilty" as Elections Canada would have us believe the conservatives are?

[catherine]

Bob Ward, you seem to be simply repeating the CPC line. Do you know that Harper insisted that they never made Riddell any offer, but a Supreme Court judge found that they had offered him $50K and Riddell turned around and sued Harper for libel (since Harper had said Riddell was lying, not him) which they settled out of court. I mention all this, just so you know that Harper has openly lied and accused others of lying under similar circumstances, so you really can't take Harper at his word.

The cases the Conservatives point to, such as the Liberal lawn signs which gave what might seem like an in-and-out transfer, are not at all the same because one is allowed to transfer money to ridings which can then pay the federal party for services, but the key difference is the lawn signs were used by the local candidate in his own riding. This is not the same as paying for federal advertising.

If a search warrant was issued, there was a reason. Don't simply believe everything the Conservatives say when they have violated the rules. Note that some Conservatives accepted the Elections Canada ruling and agreed not to pursue additional public funds which EC said they were not entitled too. So even some Conservative candidates get it. A few other candidates have spoken out about how unethical this scheme was.

[Jack Robinson]

Hey, Suzie Q! Once again, I'm enticed by your fan dance fandango around issues that, while other commentators on these pages and elsewhere seem to have a grip on the crank-handle... you offer slippery insouciance and innuendo. But hey, it must be a real hissy-diss to be the Star's backpage blog Diva than, say... being a flak-jacketed CBC cupie like Adrienne Arsenault! Sincere 'kudos', however, to your lipstick chick-schtick... but not your pantingly apparent admiration for 'Snake Eyes' Stevie's Machiavellian stick-handling of accountabilty in the End Zone...

[Jan]

This entire EC affair smacks of a Liberal-CBC conspiracy to damage the CPC before the next election.