Angry in the Great White North

a heat-seeking missile in the Conservative arsenal

From Hansard:

Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier-Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, in the aftermath of the Gomery report, the Prime Minister announced a number of measures. He has, however, refused to disclose the identities of the Liberal candidates who received dirty money from Marc-Yvan Côte. Yet those candidates profited from the kickback system denounced by Justice Gomery. It is even possible that some of those candidates are sitting in this House or are working within the government.

Why does the Prime Minister refuse to disclose their identity? Why is he covering up for people who profited from the dirty money,when he has banned from the party the people who distributed that money ?

Hon. Jean Lapierre (Minister of Transport, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois is starting up again on an attempted character assassination operation affecting certain people who might be sitting here or other public figures.

If the leader of the Bloc Quebecois has accusations to make concerning anyone whatsoever, let him rise and name names.

Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier-Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, we are asking for names. It was they who expelled people, including Marc-Yvan Côte. During the 1997 election campaign, Marc-Yvan Côte was responsible for 21 ridings in eastern Quebec. Eighteen of them received funds and some ten got cash from Marc-Yvan Côte.

By not revealing the names of the candidates, does the Prime Minister realize he is fuelling the suspicions currently swirling around all the Liberal candidates in the 1997 election?

Hon. Jean Lapierre (Minister of Transport, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, if there is one person doing his level best to fuel suspicion, to try to damage reputations, it is once again the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, who has no proof of what he is contending. If he wants to accuse somebody, he should have the courage to make the accusations in the House and outside it. Otherwise, he should be quiet.

I can see why the Bloc would be annoyed. Eighteen ridings where kickback money was spent to defeat Bloc candidates.

We don't know who they are, which ones actually won, and which of them might be in cabinet.

The government's response: unless you know who they are and are willing to name them, stop slinging mud!

But the problem is that the government knows who these people are, not the opposition.

This puts the government in a bit of a bind. If the Liberals give in and name the ridings, the potential is that up to 12 Liberal MPs will have to go into the next election defending themselves against accusations of cheating, since 12 of the Liberal MPs from the province in Quebec in this current parliament fought in the 1997 election. You can almost be certain that those ridings would be write-offs for the Liberals.

On the other hand, if the Liberals play dumb, the Bloc can use the suspicion against all twelve of the Liberal MPs in Quebec who fought in the 1997 election.

So how many are these twelve Liberal MPs were on Côte's list? If none of them, the Liberals could have simply said that. That suggests one or more of them are members of The 18 Club. Are all them on the list? Or just a significant number? Or maybe only one or two or three, but that includes important ones -- there are several ministers on the potential list.

Heck, Paul Martin is a potential member of the club.

To make the Bloc's job easier, here's a list of sitting Members of Parliament for the Liberal Party who fought in the 1997 election in a Quebec riding:

• Eleni Bakopanos, Ahuntsic
• Denis Coderre, Bourassa
• Stephane Dion, Saint-Laurent-Cartierville
• Claude Drouin, Beauce
• Raymonde Folco, Laval—Les Îles
• Marlene Jennings, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine
• Paul Martin, LaSalle#8212;emard
• Denis Paradis, Brome—Missisquoi
• Bernard Patry, Pierrefonds—Dollard
• Pierre Pettigrew, Papineau
• Lucienne Robillard, Westmount—Ville-Marie
• Jacques Saada, Brossard—La Prairie

Now maybe some enterprising reporter can call up each of these MPs and ask them point blank if they received money from Côte in 1997. Ah, why wait. I'll start doing that right now. I'll let you know if I get any answers.

Update: Re-reading the original Gomery Inquiry transcripts, we learn that Côte was in charge of the "21 eastern ridings" of Quebec for the Liberals. It is difficult to figure out which 1997 ridings those actually were because that phrase has no official meaning with Elections Canada, and I can't find a Liberal Party document online that specifies which ridings were considered "eastern". But taking some educated guesses, and eliminating those ridings that Côte would not have spent money in (he was spending kickback money in so-called "orphan" ridings), there are two sitting members of parliament who should be worried:

• Claude Drouin, Beauce
• Denis Paradis, Brome—Missisquoi

Of course, it may be that none of the ridings where Côte spent money elected Liberals. We won't know until someone starts naming names.