Friday, March 23, 2007

Has Stockwell had his day?

You gotta love stories like this:

The Liberals are demanding MP Stockwell Day resign from cabinet after documents surfaced Thursday that allege another MP was paid up to $50,000 to step aside in 2000 and let Day run in his riding.

The Liberals are asking the RCMP to investigate the allegations, and say Day cannot continue as the Conservative's public safety minister in the interim, since the Department of Public Safety oversees the RCMP.

Day denies any wrongdoing and calls the allegations a "driveby smear."

The allegations centre on events seven years ago when Day was elected leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party. Day, who wasn't an MP at the time, had no riding and no seat in the House of Commons.

Fellow Alliance MP Jim Hart offered to step aside in the Okanagan-Coquihalla riding in British Columbia, forcing a byelection. Day won that byelection handily on Sept. 11, 2000.

On Thursday, Liberal MP Mark Holland alleged his party has found faxes that show Hart made a $50,000 compensation deal with the Canadian Alliance party to resign. If proven to be true, this would be a criminal offence.

Via here. I've sometimes said that the main difference between the Conservatives and Liberals is that the Conservatives have more bigots and the Liberals have more crooks, but if this is true there's no shortage of crookedness among the Cons either.

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