The Lisa Raitt affair (2)
The opposition parties were in high dudgeon in the House of Commons yesterday, with their ire directed at Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt. But it wasn’t her handling of the isotopes affair or the privatization of AECL or any of the other weighty topics on Raitt’s plate that caused the uproar. Rather, it was a confidential government document left behind at a TV station.
An aide to Raitt has resigned over the incident, but the opposition wanted more. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said it was “despicable” that an aide took the fall. Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe demanded Raitt’s resignation for “negligence.” Not to be outdone, Thomas Mulcair of the NDP said she should “leave immediately.”
This is “gotcha politics” at its worst. Yes, ministers should be careful with confidential documents. But there is no indication that high state secrets were involved in this case or that Raitt herself was responsible for leaving the document behind.
The opposition compared Raitt’s situation to that of Maxime Bernier, the minister who resigned last year after leaving a government document at Julie Couillard’s home. But in that case, Bernier himself was clearly to blame, and it was the last straw after a series of embarrassing revelations about his relationship with her.
In this case, Raitt offered her resignation and Prime Minister Stephen Harper rightly refused to accept it. Time for the opposition to move on to more substantive issues.
[Source]
Related:
Bully Boys Of The Opposition! (video)
Notes:
Watching Question Period right now. Lisa must feel like a punching bag as the “part” Official Opposition imagines they smell blood. I say “part” because all the Liberal big guns are missing today. Could it be that they have a crisis they are not telling us about?
In another vein…
Frankly, I do not believe that the government is required to “respect” various MP’s on the opposition side of the house. Lisa is being very kind and caring. If I were there I would snarl by pointing out just how stupid their questions make them look. Therefore the reason I would never make a good MP.
I’d be thrown out on my ear.
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Male, retired and the rest is of little interest to anyone. The site keeps me busy and if it helps others to stay abreast of daily events then my time is well spent.
MaryT Says:
It appears that the female aide is the daughter of a liberal fund raiser. And if 90% of the
product is shipped to the USA and they are now under orders not to use anything not produced in the USA, those sales will be lost.
I wonder if all the hollering over this is to detract from the ADSCAM case in court, where a liberal has pleaded guilty and will soon name names of liberals in Quebec who benefited from ADSCAM. Notice Codere got 5,000.00 dollars. And perhaps they also want to detract from all the possible false cancer tests that happened in Quebec, and other provinces.
It seems the opposition was given false info re the documents and who carried them, as there is a picture at Paulstuffs showing the truth.
So, are all female staff subserviant to their male bosses. Brings back memories of how some women got to the top of their field.
If you are 26 or under, don’t apply for a job with the liberals. Proves it is an old boys club.
Perhaps it is time to list all the so called leaks from ministers offices, done by liberal staffers working for the government. Remember that hippie kid and his 15 minutes of fame. And where is that young man who took a job with Iggy, to start in June, from the PMO’s office,. (I think that is where he was working) What if anything did he take with him.
Posted on June 4th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Pat Says:
Maybe I’ve got it all wrong, but if I were to find these documents, they’d be locked up and only delivered to, either an RCMP with all the right info. or a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, again with all the right info. …and no I would look no further than the first page that said Secret.
I thought publishing government secrets was treason or at least something like that.
Posted on June 5th, 2009 at 8:08 pm