Accusations of Ignatieff clarified

Sent out today from the Ignatieff Campaign to clarify the accusations against Ignatieff.

September 26, 2006

VIA E-MAIL

Steve McKinnon
Executive Director
Liberal Party of Canada
81 Metcalf Street, Suite 400
Ottawa, ON
K1P 6M8

Re: Complaint filed against Michael Ignatieff Leadership Campaign

Mr. McKinnon:
Late yesterday, we obtained a copy of the allegations against the Michael Ignatieff Leadership Campaign (“Ignatieff Campaign”) filed with Nikki Holland, RRO for Ontario earlier in the day. We have since reviewed all memberships cited in that document. Of the 60 memberships cited, we have confirmed that only three were signed up by the Ignatieff Campaign. The remainder either pre-date the leadership contest, were signed up through competing campaigns, or took out their memberships independent of the leadership contest. The deceased member cited joined the Party with a five-year membership in 2004, prior to Michael’s involvement in Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

I have attached a file outlining our detailed findings.

The complaint also attached a number of signed statements, alleging that “fees were kindly paid for by the Michael Ignatieff leadership campaign”. As you will see from an examination of the membership lists, all of these memberships pre-date the leadership contest, making it impossible for this to be the case.

Of the three memberships signed up by the Ignatieff Campaign still at issue, none fall within the purview of the Leadership Expenses Committee, as no allegations of misspending by the Ignatieff Campaign have been made. These three memberships are properly the jurisdiction of the regional challenge process, which deadline passed last Friday, before this complaint was filed. I personally signed up two of these members and can confirm that they paid their own membership fees. The third is a senior woman who suggests that her membership was paid by another member of her senior’s club, not the Ignatieff Campaign.

I feel compelled to add one point. The Ignatieff Campaign did not receive a copy of the complaint from the Party itself, despite our request. We were left to defend against these baseless allegations without knowledge of them, when we could have reviewed and defended within an hour of receiving a copy. It was only at the end of the day, after media filing deadlines, that we were sent a copy by a third party. The result was harm to the Ignatieff Campaign in advance of delegate selection meetings, and harm to the Liberal Party of Canada.

While we support the process the Liberal Party has in place to handle such allegations, the moment the media becomes aware of them, it is incumbent on the Party to provide the affected campaign(s) with the tools necessary to respond to the allegations.

I trust our analysis will be confirmed through the Party’s review and I await your findings.

Most sincerely,
Sachin Aggarwal
Chief Agent and National Director of Operations
Michael Ignatieff Leadership Campaign
cc. Michael Eizenga, President, LPC
cc. Nikki Holland, RRO Ontario
cc. David Pretlove, Executive Director, LPC(O)
cc. Leadership Expenses Committee

Conservative plans: What they will do with the surplus.

Today, the Conservative Government has announced what it will do with the 13.2 Billion dollar Surplus. As many analysts have suggested, the presumed dealings would be to lower taxes or to give something back; since a surplus is a good indicator that Canadians are being over taxed.

But that is not how they Conservatives view things. John Baird and Jim Flaherty announced cuts to a vast amount of public programs. They do not plan on cutting taxes and have taken away a large amount of spending on to name one, the Status of Women. They want to focus on paying the national debt. While Baird says he wants to focus on "real priorities for real Canadians", however will it suffice for them to balance the budget rather than give any breaks to Canadians - particularly ones with the lowest income?

I think Belinda Stronach has a poin t when she says the Conservative government is working to cut programs that work counter to their political agenda. She says, "it will be limiting the opportunity that people have to push for equal rights and it worries me greatly" {paraphrased slightly}

Typical Conservative move that is only going to hurt Canadians in the end.

Joe Volpe: Really is he that bad?

So first Vople is alleged for taking money from Minors for his campaign, and now he is signing up people from the dead. President of the treasury Board John Baird, along with NDP critics, have since been mocking the Liberal party in general and poking fun at these allegations. My take on the issue is not whether Mr. Volpe would make a good leader - because I do not think he would make a good leader- but rather why so much attention to him and his errors?

His news conferences and appearances on Canada Am gave him a chance to clarify and, not to belittle the allegations, he made good points. I mean obviously there were dead people signed up - the paper work shows it- but to what advantage of his would that be? I mean come on really. How are the dead people suppose to come out and support him? Its non-sense to make such a huge deal out of this. And believe me when I say I am no fan of Mr. Volpe. And nontheless the media attention and the potential actuality of another camp being responsible for the allegations is both a) giving a negative image of the party itself and b) not having any constructive purpose in itself.

How would you measure in on Mr. Volpe and the criticisms he has recieved? As one Conservative cabinet minister was quoted saying to Robert fife (on CTV) is "Joe Volpe the gift )to conservative)that keeps on giving"?

Since we are Liberals and have an interest in our party, do you think Mr.Volpe is worsening the situation for Liberals in general by staying in the race?

David McGuinty M.P Endorses Michael Ignatieff

Ottawa South M.P David McGuinty has offically thrown his support behind leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff. Today is the first day that parliament is back in session after the summer break. David McGuinty is a well respected man and with his background in environment and resources Law it works in favour of Mr. Ignatieff. David says of Ignatieff:

"Throughout this campaign, Michael Ignatieff has consistently laid out ambitious policy proposals. He has identified the challenges we must face as a country and offered real solutions, not easy answers. He has delivered the strongest and clearest message on the environment, saying that we must put a price on greenhouse gas emissions if we are to seriously tackle climate change. He has demonstrated political courage and a steadfast commitment to Liberal values. He is doing politics differently – I admire that and I think many Liberals feel the same way," said David McGuinty.

Anthony Rota, Ontario Liberal Caucus Chair, Endorses Michael Ignatieff

Today it was released that Anthony Rota, Ontario Liberal Caucus Chair, has decided to Endorse Michael Ignatieff for leader of the Liberal Party. Coming at a time when an insignificant move was made by Bennett to support Rae, I think it was much more influential to take note of Rota's decision in terms of showing real support. Michael is proving himself more and more capable of bringing the party together and its exciting to see the continuous growth of support he maintains with Liberals, especially the YOUTH core.

Colbert Report -Sexy Photo

For mere Humour check out the Colbert Report on Comedy Central to watch Stephen make mocking comments about the gossip crazed relationship between U.S secretary of State Condelizza Rice and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay.

Colbert Report

Bennett 2nd candidate out & Interesting poll

So Carolyn Bennett has dropped from the Race and decided to give her support to candidate Bob Rae. Which leaves us with 9 contenders. While some people say 'interesting' that Bennett has supported Rae, I dont find it to be all that surprising. I would even goes as far to say that I wouldnt have expected much else. Perhaps like Bevilaqua there was additional motivation to move over to Rae's camp. But I dont want to jump the gun and make any assumptions, so I'll suggest that Bennett may have enjoyed Rae's Health care policies, as that is one of her primary concerns.

On another note an interesting poll done by the Gandolf Group goes through how general canadians feel about all the candidates, how Liberals feel about them and which issues are important to all of them. It's worth having a look at, if not for anything but fun.

The Publics Choice