DarrenBarefoot.com

Does Harper need new advisors? Or, the Mulroney grocery bag of money and Trojan Horse election:

The PM blew it with the two non-Tory-elected Cabinet appointments. He moved fast, and some reports say he was not making this decision on his own – others advised him on them.

Does he need new advisors?

He is relatively green to the office of Prime Minister, and his experience as policy wonk and opposition leader does not necessarily equip him to represent all the people of Canada, including those in the large cities which did not vote any Tories into Parliament; therefore the quality of his advisors is rather important.

Are his advisors of the right sort?

I spotted a preening Brian Mulroney on TV the night of the election, saying he would not comment on whether or not he was an advisor to the new PM, because he had learned that the easiest way to become an ex-advisor was to say you were one. He obviously signalled that he was one, and Harper is reported to have called Brian Baby often during the election for advice.

• A legitimate question for Harper: Did Brian Mulroney advise you on your two unusual Cabinet appointments (especially the Quebec one)?

• A second question: Is Mulroney the best advisor for a newly-minted PM, given his track record of leading the Conservative Party to the biggest implosion in recorded history?

Rafe Mair of thetyee.ca has an interesting snippet about Mulroney and a grocery bag full of money:

“Because of the news this week, permit me to digress. In various newspapers, over the past few years, it’s been stated that Brian Mulroney took several hundred thousand dollars in a grocery bag from Karl-Heinz Schreiber, the Mr. Fix-it of the Airbus scandal. When the story appeared in the Globe and Mail about two years ago, it was in the weekend editorial on the second page by editor Ed Greenspon, who reported that Mulroney, far from denying this, begged him not to print the story and offered him a better one if he didn’t. Now Mr. Schreiber has flatly denied Mr. Mulroney’s statement that this shopping bag full of money was to help him open a pizza business. He says Mulroney was short of money and “…[Mulroney] was very simple and very stupid. Simple as that I gave him 300,000. Stupid in that he denied it…” This money, it’s reported, came from a Swiss bank account. This leads to a bigger question. In 1995, the RCMP wanted to examine Swiss bank accounts looking for Brian Mulroney. In order to get cooperation from the banks, they had to compose a letter setting forth the reasonable grounds for the request. This request became public and Mulroney sued the government for $50 million. The government caved in and paid over $2 million to Mulroney in settlement. Some, including me, screamed blue bloody murder over this, but the establishment’s captive press did no investigating and let matters lie. Now the CBC, God bless them, through Fifth Estate, have uncovered the $300,000 story and, it is hoped will follow up on the Swiss Bank Account caper.”

One further thought: If Mulroney is an important and trusted advisor of Harper, then have Canadian voters in effect elected a Harper-Mulroney government?

And did voters realize they were doing this, or is it – like the Vancouver and Quebec cabinet appointments – another case of a Harper Trojan Horse policy?

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