Cash for Access
December 20, 2016
Here’s a thought:
Over the last few years my contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada have been directly tied to the level of abuse Justin Trudeau has faced in the media during his time in office. Unfair attack ads opened my cheque book because, like a distant but somewhat protective parent, I felt I could at least do something to defend the guy.
All fall I have ignored the LPC email stream begging for contributions because things were going pretty well for JT and the Liberals and they could get along without me after we had gotten rid of Harper. It seemed it was somebody else’s turn to pay the piper. I didn’t mind if it was Chinese billionaires. It at least showed the Liberal Party had gotten off their butts and learned how to raise money.
But now the media’s lining up on this ethics issue. The LPC has learned to find the money to operate, but they’re vulnerable because of the catchy bumper-sticker phrase “Cash for access.”
I guess the condemnation is really directed at me, the lazy parent. So last night the cheque book opened up again.
the Walnut Diary 
December 20, 2016 at 7:58 pm
I knew you would! Once a Liberal, always a Liberal. Just don’t sent anything to Wynn.
Brian
December 21, 2016 at 7:32 am
Brian:
I have to react to your once-a-Liberal comment.
I was raised a fifth-generation Progressive Conservative. Election days my grandmother worked for MPP James Auld. He got me a job surveying on the highway. My uncle worked for Gord Brown.
My first mentor was George Challies, an elderly former Progressive Conservative MPP who lent books to a five year-old, and used to enjoy conversations with me. My grandmother cooked for him at his cottage in Chaffey’s Locks.
But I was a teacher and Mike Harris deliberately made life Hell for teachers in Ontario during his regime. After I had voted for him twice, he made a reluctant Liberal out of me.
During a provincial election every candidate came to the house for an interview for my Review-Mirror column. I voted NDP because the Liberal candidate was a slug.
Over the years I have had no use for Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien, Brian Mulroney, Bob Rae, and Tom Mulcair. John Crosbie, Joe Clark, Bill Davis, Flora MacDonald and John Matheson earned my respect.
I have interviewed Michael Ignatieff and Gord Brown and liked both. Gord has conducted himself as a gentleman during his tenure in Leeds-Grenville, but he’s too right-wing for me.
My current favourite Conservative leadership candidate is Michael Chong. If the Conservatives were smart enough to choose him, I’d likely go back to the blue tent.
I first encountered Justin Trudeau when he was about eleven at Poonamalee Lockstation where he was trying to hold things together on a houseboat while his mother and her husband, both hurting rather badly from dehydration, were paying no attention to his younger brothers. The Mounties were no help. Justin kept an eye on the boys as they guided the heavy boat up the lock wall, then watched a humiliating encounter between his mother and a group of bystanders with cameras, and soldiered on. I decided then and there that Justin was the only adult on the boat and the security detail which trailed along behind.
Years later I wasn’t surprised to see him become Liberal leader, and later to win the election. I’d seen his grit and self-control on the lock wall at Poonamalee.
Rod