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Monday Apr. 27,
2009 BACK NEXT
PM, PMO and Mulroney affair
By
Angelo
Persichilli
THE HILL
TIMES
The
dispute about the way former prime minister Brian Mulroney was
treated by his party seems to be over after Prime Minister Stephen
Harper intervened last week at the party's national caucus meeting.
But at the same time, it appears some old scars have been reopened
in the relationship between some members of the caucus and a couple
of people in the PMO.
In the last caucus meeting MP Lee
Richardson, the Conservative member from Calgary Centre, Alta., was
the only MP to intervene openly on the issue "and with his voice
shaking with anger, he said he didn't want the people from the PMO
to lie to them," a source told The Hill Times.
In
particular Richardson said he was sorry for his friend, Conservative
Sen. Marjory LeBreton, government leader in the Senate, who was put
in a very difficult position with the media because of this
situation.
Sources told The Hill Times that two other
MPs, one of them Daryl Kramp, intervened on the same issue but from
a different angle. Kramp and another MP were not pleased with the
leaks from the caucus to the media in the two previous weeks and
they asked Prime Minister Harper to intervene with stiff sanctions.
A source close to the PMO said these actions were especially
"troubling because they took place when the Prime Minister was out
of the country."
Prime Minister Harper, in his intervention
during last week's caucus meeting, did not address the issue
directly. He said that the government led by Mulroney did many good
things for Canada and that Mulroney definitely deserves respect for
that.
At the same time, said Harper, there is an inquiry
that Mulroney asked for, and the government has to make sure that
there is not going to be even the perception of interference in the
proceedings of the Oliphant Inquiry.
The only Conservative
who spoke on record on the Mulroney affair to The Hill Times
was Ontario Tory Sen. Consiglio Di Nino.
"I can't make any
comment on what happens in the caucus. I can only say that this
whole issue has been blown out of proportion by some people. I can
tell you that there is nothing there that we should be concerned
about. The only concern we should have is about the economy, and
that's what Harper is working on," said Di Nino.
Di Nino is
passionate about the activities of the government in these difficult
times and said Harper has realized "the seriousness of the problems
in this country. He and his government started to do something about
it two years ago, that's why things in this country are better than
any other country of the G8 and, maybe, the G20. That's what we have
to be concerned about and that's what we have to debate."
Di
Nino, who was appointed in 1989 by Mulroney, said that "Stephen
Harper has addressed very effectively the issues most of the
Canadians are concerned about. Some are saying that Stephen Harper
is not warm and fuzzy, well they can buy a teddy bear. As far as I'm
concerned," said Di Nino. "I need somebody that can run the
country."
As far as he is concerned, "the Mulroney case is
over." The whole issue started when the Conservative Party said that
Mulroney was no longer a member. The former prime minister denied it
and some of his friends accused the PMO of spreading the news at a
time when the Oliphant Inquiry is looking into why German
businessman Karlheinz Schreiber paid Mulroney $300,000 to lobby for
Schreiber's business interests.
Back in 2007, Harper ordered
members of his Cabinet and caucus not to have contact with Mulroney
after Schreiber alleged in court documents that Harper was to play a
role in Schreiber's effort to avoid extradition.
But after
the PMO leaked the story about Mulroney's membership while the PM
was out of the country, it hit the national caucus with a thud. At
that April 1 caucus meeting, LeBreton was heckled when she tried to
explain that Mulroney had allowed his membership to lapse, and
Richardson, MP Dean Del Mastro, Defence Minister Peter MacKay, and
Senators Gerry St. Germain and David Angus all got up to defend
Mulroney.
At that time the leader of the Liberal Party,
Michael Ignatieff, called Mulroney to congratulate him for his 70th
birthday. According to some, the Liberals were trying to encourage
the split in the Conservative Party and resurrect the divisions that
helped the Liberals to be in government for over 10 years.
The move, however, didn't please everybody in his party. A
Liberal strategist told The Hill Times that "had Ignatieff
known the popularity of Mulroney with Canadians he wouldn't have
done so."
Furthermore, the Liberal said that bad things will
emerge from the inquiry against the former prime minister, and that
all this fuss about Mulroney will help the Conservatives and damage
the Liberals.
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