Liberal Senator Raymond Lavigne’s fraud trial hears that he hired staffer to do real estate work

This just gets better and better. (see story here)

“Lise Gaudreau testified that her real estate licence made her eligible for a job in Lavigne’s Senate office that she accepted in February 2004.

“It was one of the requirements,” she testified.

Gaudreau said that when she first met Lavigne — at a Montreal area restaurant in January 2004 — she was told she would be responsible for finding Lavigne property in the Gatineau region if she was to become his Senate administrative assistant.”

Also: see previous Lavigne post here

Globe’s Galloway thinks Liberal talking points make a fine article

Brian Lilley calls out Gloria Galloway for repeating Liberal spin in her article titled:

“Ottawa buzzing with talk of proroguing Parliament: Tories said to be considering shutting down government until after the Olympics”

Lilley writes:

“Why do I say Liberal spin? Well for now, mostly because the talking points laid out by Gloria Galloway in this Globe article are almost verbatim the reasons I was given by a senior Liberal elsewhere a few hours earlier.”

(see Lilley column here)

Who wants to bet these Harper pics posted on liberal.ca won’t get in the media?

The Liberals have been running a photo contest on their website. The topic of the submissions:

“the places you believe Stephen Harper would rather be than in Copenhagen at the United Nations climate summit, currently underway.”

You’d think they wouldn’t have even gone through at all with this since Harper ended up going but when do Liberals let the truth get in the way of anything?

Conservative blogs are showing the pictures that were submitted and posted on Liberal.ca and if pooping puffins got the media all in a tizzy, these gems should make an unbiased media faint. (see pictures here)

The website has since removed them and this disclaimer has been posted:

A note to all viewers:

We thank all participants in this photo challenge who have submitted their entries for consideration.  Our intent was to engage Canadians concerned about the Prime Minister’s reluctance to attend the climate change conference in Copenhagen.

The photos here are created by visitors to our website, and do not always reflect the views of the Liberal Party of Canada.  Though we continue to screen submissions before posting, we have removed certain images that may have been offensive to some viewers.

We apologize for any offence these images may have caused, and continue to strive to present a progressive and dynamic web experience for our site visitors.

Sincerely,
The Web Team

Senate quietly changes rules to allow international travel

A new policy, adopted last May, gives Senators international travel privileges not allowed by elected MPs. (see story here)

Some very interesting quotes were taken from transcripts of meetings of the Senate’s internal economy committee, which governs the chamber’s operations.

Liberal Senator Paul Massicote:

“I have personally asked several senators and they have told me that they travel economy when they are paying for the ticket themselves but business class when the taxpayers are paying, I am deeply offended when I think that the tickets are going to cost $7,000 when there are people in coach paying $800 or $700.”

It still didn’t keep him from recommending this new perk