Quebec's Growing Construction Scandal Starting To Impact The Federal Conservatives

Leo Housakos, then a Conservative fundraiser, waits to testify before the Commons government operations committee on February 28, 2008. REUTERS

Housakas To Get The Boot? -- Bourque

Just when the Tories thought a majority was a done-deal, the storm clouds are gathering. Bourque has learned that embattled Conservative Senator Leo Housakos, linked to key players in the dramatically escalating Quebec construction scandal, imbedded in the Senate until the year 2043 no less, and persona non grata at the post-Mario Dumont ADQ, may be turfed from the Conservative caucus because of lingering ethics issues that have elicited a barrage of questions in the House of Commons to the extent that the Quebec politico himself has called in the Senate ethics officer to probe potential derring-do and unknown nefarious deeds. Senior Tory sources who've read the tea leaves and who spoke to Bourque on condition of anonymity assert "the situation is untenable". Such is the breach of trust within the highest echelons of Team Harper, otherwise preoccupied with ravishing glances at their current poll numbers. Said one keener who's shared a pizza with the PM while marveling at Don Cherry's resplendent blazer during a hockey broadcast, "Housakos is expendable as a Tory. He's kicking up a lot of dust in Quebec, the absolute last place we need to have a dust storm." It remains unclear how, or if, Housakos will be dealt with by the PM's political handlers, his buddy Soudas runs interference and may have to be deleted too, but it is understood that the threat Housakos made to his detractor last week won him no favours. The PM is said to remain unimpressed by his contingent of Quebec politicians. As one top-shelf Tory put it, "Pierre, we are so high in the polls these days, the only place we can go is down. And the only way we can go down is if we screw up. That's why Housakos needs to be nipped in the bud." Meanwhile, Paul Desmarais' newspaper La Presse is now reporting that Housakos crony Giulio Maturi is suddenly out as senior Harper organizer in the Montreal area and is "no longer employed by the Conservative Party", according to a spokesperson for Public Works Minister Christian Paradis, Harper's Quebec lieutenant. Developing.

My Comment: Kudos to Bourque for putting all the strings together. This has the possibility of severely damaging the Conservatives in Quebec for the next two election cycles. Quebecers are sick and tired of corruption in the political system, and any whiff of it in any party will hurt it in the next election.

I am not surprised that Harper and his team are getting rid of these men .... this fits into the mood in the Prime Minister's office that their Quebec contingent does not serve the Conservative Party's goals very well. This growing scandal will give the Conservative Party the opportunity to clean out house .... expect more people being replaced in the next few weeks.

Trouble Brewing In Dannystan?

Photo: Premier Danny Williams

From The Chronicle Herald:

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Premier Danny Williams has such an iron-clad clutch on power in Newfoundland and Labrador that some political watchers have dubbed the province "Dannystan."

That may be changing.

The loss of two high-profile cabinet ministers in less than a month and an abject climbdown over threatened health-care cuts suggest a slip in the premier’s grip.

Read more ....

My Comment: His support is rock solid. As long as the oil flows and he uses PM Harper and Quebec as his bogeyman, he will stay in power for years.

The Battle For Brampton

A one-time Grit, influential organizer Harvinder Singh Dhaliwal will campign for the Tories against Liberal MP and fellow Sikh Ruby Dhalla. Peter Power / The Globe and Mail

From The Globe And Mail:

Sikhs from Ruby Dhalla's riding are defecting in droves to the Conservatives, marking a huge shift in immigrant politics and giving Stephen Harper his first foothold in the traditionally Liberal GTA.

In a Brampton living room last weekend, Sunny Gill helped seal the conversion of a young Sikh truck driver who claims he can move 300 votes from the Liberals to the Conservatives.

The truck driver was just the latest domino to fall favourably for Mr. Gill, the local Conservative South Asian outreach co-ordinator. It was a satisfying moment.

Read more ....

My Comment: This is a Liberal Party vulnerability. Ethnic communities come from traditionally conservative societies, they share little if any of the social liberal policies of the Liberals. Gay rights, abortion, government's role in education and the family .... Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus .... these religious and ethnic communities are on record of being strongly opposed to these social and government policies.

Can the Conservative Party exploit this advantage .... at the moment I do not see this happening, but once the ball starts rolling .... the days of a Liberal lock on this vote will be gone.

Ignatieff Would Do Worse In Election Than Dion: Poll

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff interacts with student Payton Kelly before reading a book to a pre-kindergarten class, at an early childhood learning centre in Ottawa Oct. 20, 2009. Photograph by: Blair Gable, Reuters

From Canada.com:

OTTAWA — A new poll shows support for the federal Liberal party has weakened so much that, were an election to be held today, Michael Ignatieff would lead his party to a worse showing than his predecessor, Stephane Dion, did last October.

“The Liberals, these days, just have no traction at all,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of polling firm Ipsos Reid, which provided its latest results exclusively to Canwest News Service and Global National.

Read more ....

My Comment:If this poll is accurate, Michael Ignatieff should count himself lucky. If he was successful in pulling the plug on the government last month, he would be looking for alternative work by now.

It is clear that a majority of Canadians are not interested in an election. It is also clear that the Liberals and NDP are bleeding support to the Bloc and the Green Party. The only question that one can ask is .... will these voters come back in the future, or has the NDP and Liberals lost them for good. My gut is telling me that some of these voters may not be coming back.

As for the Conservatives, Quebec is denying them their majority again. PM Harper and his staff must formulate a new strategy and approach to winning in this battleground. Unfortunately, I do not see anyone in the PMO's office or in the Party who understands the dynamics in Quebec and what it takes to win here. They are certainly lacking a good spokesperson who can make their case in this province.

The Wild Tumble Of Michael Ignatieff

Michael Ignatieff

From The Montreal Gazette:

The Conservatives might be competitive in Quebec as the Liberals fall.

No leader of a Canadian political party has ever taken such a tumble in public opinion as Michael Ignatieff has since he told Stephen Harper his time was up on the first day of September.

It's a stunning fall from political grace, entirely of his own making. And the problem with a free fall, is that there's no way of knowing when you've bottomed out. Until then, Ignatieff could win the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing, as Barack Obama just has, and his numbers would still keep falling.

Read more ....

My Comment: Ian MacDonald is right .... the Conservative fortunes in Quebec are dependent on the misfortunes of the Liberal Party .... a fact that the Quebec Liberals have been very effective in doing.