BC Liberal government knew of personal security breach 7 months prior

The RCMP gave the files on 1,400 income assistant clients found in a government worker’s apartment to the BC Liberal government back in May but the minister Ben Stewart says he was only informed about it “2 or 3 weeks ago” and defends not telling all the people affected until last week. (see story here)

My questions are:

1) who didn’t pass this information to him and have those people been fired

2) did he receive this information and suppressed it during the May election?

Either way this minister should resign as he either has no control of his ministry or he willfully put 1,400 people’s credit history and ID theft threat behind his burning desire to get re-elected?

Big surprise. More Liberal donors appointed

After a stunning elimination of Tourism BC (see previous post here) Tourism Minister Kevin Krueger announced Monday 13 appointees to a new council that:

“represents a broad cross-section of the tourism industry and reflects the diversity of B.C.’s distinct regions”

Tourism BC apparently didn’t?? Here’s the kicker… 8 of the 13 appointees are donors to the Liberal Party and the chair Stuart McLaughlin, president of Grouse Mountain Resorts,  donated over $60,000 to the BC Liberals since 2005. (see story here)

I’m going to check out the other donors totals and will post them as I find them.

Also: see my previous post on other Liberal donors getting appointed (here)

$2,000 to host a scotch party for MPs by Speaker of the House

The scotch parties that I’ve been invited to always came with a price tag. Either you brought a bottle or chipped in a set amount for the host to buy the scotch for all to try. It’s actually a good way to try different scotches on a working man’s salary.

On Parliament Hill it’s done a little differently. The Speaker of the House Liberal Peter Milliken spent $2,000 of his yearly $170,000 annual hospitality budget hosting a taxpayer-funded boozer for his MP buddies. (see story here)

“Convivial gatherings, such as the Scotch tasting, which bring together members from all parties, have proved to be quite helpful in softening members’ attitudes towards one another,” said Milliken.

This is an addition to all the private dinners,  galas and garden parties he hosts at his Kingsmere estate (butler included) paid all by, you guessed it, the taxpayer.

BC Lib cabinet minister’s glib smirking response to question about political pay-off

Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Blair Lekstrom’s smarmy response to a question posed about naming all three heads of the groups who came out opposing the NDP during this year’s provincial election to a government task force: (see my previous post on this here)

The NDP’s Carole James better watch her back

The NDP political mover and shakers who took a pass at the NDP 2003 leadership convention that Carole James won by default are starting to flex some muscle now that they can smell an election victory coming. They didn’t like the idea of leading a party that looked to be wandering the political hinterland for a very long time after the 2001 election massacre that left the NDP with only two seats.

Now that Premier Gordon Campbell is leading the Liberals to political suicide, these same NDP power brokers are now kicking themselves and figuring out the best way to remove James from being leader. Although the NDP is leading in the two latest polls, James’s leadership numbers suck to put it bluntly. She doesn’t resonate well at all with the average voter and the back-room boys smell blood. The first volleys are being shot from two party president and vice-president candidates running at this weekend’s NDP convention. Check out one of their websites (here) and read this guy’s list of why the NDP isn’t in power now under James.

James looked absolutely pathetic yesterday when asked about this uprising by the media:

Olympic costs that the Liberals don’t count

This is a list of  expenditures I took from a Michael Smyth (column)that the BC Liberals don’t include in their Olympic costs. Love that even one that is purely a government function even with an Olympic name is still inexplicably excluded.

BC Olympic Games Secretariat: $40.7 million

Insurance Corp of BC: $15 million sponsorship

BC Hydro: $22 million sponsorship

BC Lotteries: $15 million sponsorship

Government only MLA tickets: $900,000

Olympic torch relay events: $3.5 million

Olympic School Spirit Program: $500,000

I haven’t added to this list any infrastructure costs such as the rushed Sea to Sky Hwy or Canada Line projects.

Dion pledges loyalty to Ignatieff with his wife’s knife still stuck in Iffy’s back

I was imagining how Dion could even face Ignatieff after what his wife did to him with her Facebook tirade over the weekend. Apparently no problem for either of them: (see story here)

Ignatieff: “Stephane is a colleague and friend and has given me absolutely magnificent support throughout my leadership”

Dion “he’s always been loyal to his leaders and his party and he’ll always be”

Also: (see previous post here)

Hear that sound of the Left ripping away from the Liberal Party?

One of the interesting things that was revealed in the latest polls was how the Liberals had dropped but that support didn’t seem to move to the Conservatives but instead to the NDP and Green Parties.

Steve Janke writes a great piece about the Left leaving the Liberals in disgust citing former leader Stephane Dion’s wife Janine Krieber’s hissy fit over the weekend as evidence. (see Janke’s column here)

Also: (see my previous post on Krieber here)

What does Mint do if there may be stolen gold? Call in public relations and polling companies of course.

On June 9th, the federal government ordered the Royal Canadian Mint to ask the RCMP to investigate what happened to over $15 million in missing gold that somehow disappeared from under their noses.

Calling in the cops was obviously not on their to-do list but spending money on damage control was as they hired Angus Reid to conduct two polls for them and paid for “issue analysis” from Hill and Knowlton on at least four occasions. (see story here)

David Dingwall would have been proud….

Media finally looking at Liberal role in establishing prisoner transfer policy

I’ve noticed a trend today in the stories about former diplomat Richard Colvin’s testimony on Afghan detainees. The media is starting to report on how it was the Liberals who established these protocols:

Chantal Hebert column here

Norman Spector  column here

Rosi DiManno column here

Globe and Mail editorial here

Andrew Coyne blog here

The Liberals are running the risk of this being turned back on them in a very big way.