conservative party Archives - Page 7 of 16

Ottawa politics…

…but of the local variety.

Stephen Harper and the federal Conservative Party recently delivered a number of tax relief measures to Canadians. However, locally and provincially, it has yet to be seen if these other levels of government will rush to fill the gap and squeeze Canadians to fund their projects. Local Ottawa city councillor Jan Harder for example is raising the alarm on the fact that the federal government isn’t providing the municipality of Ottawa with enough of your federal tax money to fund local infrastructure projects.

This week, Harder defended her tax friendly position by writing in the Barrhaven Independent that “I did not run as a tax fighter in the last election…”

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However, on her 2006 re-election website, in her “On The Record” section, she claims this very quality in big bold red letters. Her claim as a “Taxfighter” exists on her website to this day.

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Quite the contradiciton, no?

The big debate in Ottawa these days is the city budget and this councillor seems to sit on whichever side of the tax debate suits her at the given moment.

UPDATE: Harder weighs in on city spending on services versus Mayor O’Brien’s “zero means zero” pledge in this recent CFRA interview. Unfortunately, it appears that spending and higher taxes will win out if Harder gets her way.

Wajid Khan out of caucus

Following this story in the Globe and Mail which broke a few hours ago, this press release just landed in my email inbox:

OTTAWA – Today, Member of Parliament Wajid Khan announced he is stepping aside from Conservative caucus. The decision was made following media reports that he may be charged under the Elections Act over matters dating back to the 2004 election, when he ran as a candidate for the Liberal Party.

“Although I have not yet been served with court documents, Given the circumstances, I am withdrawing from the Conservative caucus to sit as an independent MP. I have also offered the Prime Minister my resignation as his Special Advisor for Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs.”

Wajid Khan MP
Mississauga Streetsville

In and Out common to all parties say Conservatives

The Hill Times had a cover story today describing an affidavit that the Conservative Party filed in Federal Court one week ago today.

The affidavit details examples of so-called in and out election financing by other parties. The HT story included a quote from Tory MP Tom Lukiwski,

In the affidavit, we listed more than 100 individual candidates from all three parties that did the exact same thing that we did in terms of how they entered into an agreement with their national parties on a regional ad buy. So in effect, regardless of the motion of Ms. Redman, we will now be able to take a look at the affidavits that have been presented and I would be fully prepared to bring forward witnesses and all of these candidates from the various parties and have them come forward and have them explain how they entered into this agreement and ask the question that if all parties were doing the same thing why is it that only the Conservative Party was being singled out?

The motion of Ms. Redman, the Liberal whip, was tabled at the Procedure and House Affairs committee asked the committee to investigate “In and Out” financing during the last election. The Conservatives believe that their affidavit shows that all parties participated in the financing practice which allowed individual candidates, in some cases, to participate in regional ad buys.

In discussions with some Conservatives I have heard that there is generally held belief among officials in the party that Elections Canada has been biased in its withholding of $1.2 million of rebates from the Tories. The Conservatives ask rhetorically what the key difference is between their “in and out” financing versus that of the NDP and Liberals. Some Conservatives believe that it is because of party stripe.

I have obtained a copy of the “Donald Affidavit” which describes examples of “in and out” ad buying by other parties.

Donald Affidavit (PDF)