Angry in the Great White North
Beer and popcorn, redux
Thursday, June 01, 2006 at 11:01 AM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
Leader

Let's recap.

People who want to see Joe Volpe as the next Liberal Party leader use children to write cheques in the amount of thousands of dollars and so evade donation limits:

Two 11-year-olds donated $10,800 to Joe Volpe's Liberal leadership campaign, and their 14-year-old brother gave another $5,400.

The sums were from children of former Apotex Inc. vice-president Allen Shechtman and were among the 20 donations totalling $108,000 to Mr. Volpe's campaign from five current and former executives of the firm and 15 of their family members.

Liberals in Joe Volpe's camp think there is nothing wrong with this:

Earlier, however, Mr. Volpe's national campaign co-ordinator, Scarborough MP Jim Karygiannis, insisted that nothing was wrong with the donations from 11-year-olds, and noted that it is legal for children of any age to donate to an election campaign.Mr. Volpe's spokesman, Corey Hobbs, said Monday that all the donations are in full compliance with the law, and that none will be returned.

Indeed, Volpe is ready to sue anyone who criticizes him:

Yesterday, Mr. Volpe's lawyer, Steven Polak, sent a letter to [New Democratic Party MP Pat Martin] demanding that he retract “false, malicious, and slanderous statements about Mr. Volpe and contributions to his leadership campaign.”

The Liberal Party itself thinks using children as money-laundering mules is just good campaigning:

The national Liberal Party said yesterday it has no reason to investigate donations to leadership candidate Joe Volpe from current and former executives of a generic drug firm and their relatives.

While other parties criticized the donations, national director Steven MacKinnon said the Liberal Party has not made any inquiries with the donors.

"Elections Canada regulates contributions to leadership candidates. The Liberal Party does not," Mr. MacKinnon said.

He said donors to political parties must be Canadian citizens -- in fact landed immigrants can also donate -- and must contribute their own money. "Until we have a reason to believe that neither of those is the case, no action is warranted."

This isn't just about Joe Volpe. It is about the Liberal Party as a whole. There are many who are critical of Volpe, but many more who are not (or at least not until the bad press started), including those in key executive positions.

This is the Liberal Party attitude towards children.

When Communications Director Scott Reid criticized the Conservative plan to give money to parents of children, he worried that Canadian parents would be irresponsible and spend the money on "beer and popcorn".

I guess he was right after all. He just didn't go far enough. I mean, Liberal parents are likely to spend money in the childrens' names on beer, popcorn, and sleazy leadership campaigns.

Too bad there is no way to keep the childcare cheques from going to irresponsible Liberal parents.

Oh well.

The good news is that we have avoided having the Liberal Party implement a nationalized daycare plan. Imagine being compelled to trust these people and their lackeys and supporters with our children.

"OK, children. Today for arts and crafts, we're going to make Liberal campaign buttons! See, volunteer labour does not count againt donation limits. Who can say 'donation'? Very good!"

It's a chilling thought.

More Volpe creepiness: Not just a guy who takes candy (and campaign cheques) from a child, but an enemy of free speech too.

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