This can’t be good for the Liberals. It’s day two of the campaign and the RCMP are investigating a new Liberal scandal.
Turns out that the market moved in anticipation of Ralph Goodale’s announcement that income trusts wouldn’t be taxed and that the corporate dividend tax credit would be increased.
Goodale called it a “drive-by smear” when opposition MPs questioned him on the market jump prior to his announcement.
However:
A forensic accountant told CTV Newsnet’s Mike Duffy Live that he thinks the probability there was insider trading is between 75 and 85 per cent.
Goodale said he made it clear an announcement would be coming before the opposition non-confidence vote, which took place Monday evening.
However, Rosen said most of the trading involved three brokers at most, and seemed to occur between 3:15 p.m. and 4 p.m. that day.
Bloomberg News cites some examples of heavy trading volumes:
The Yellow Pages Income Fund rose 3.4 per cent ahead of the announcement, in which Goodale said he wouldn’t tax income trusts such as Yellow Pages.
The S&P/TSX Capped Income Trust Index climbed 1.5 per cent on Nov. 23, the day of Goodale’s announcement, and jumped 4.4 per cent the next day.
Pair this developing scandal with Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s announcement creating an independent office of public prosecutions and it’ll be very difficult for even the best Liberal spinners not to concede that this second day of the campaign has been won by Stephen Harper.
If this scandal turns out to be insider trading (75-85%), then this may end up plaguing the Liberals during most of the campaign.