Thanks for nothing, Raymond Lavigne. The senator was convicted today of fraud and breach of trust. I'm sure we'll be hearing about him again in the coming months - from the Tories.
We'll have to wait a couple of weeks to find out if Ray gets booted from the Senate but I'm betting the Tory-majority would like nothing better, especially as that would give Harper the opportunity to appoint yet another Conservative, this time from Montreal.
Two former staffers testified that Lavigne filed bogus expense claims for their travel and pocketed the reimbursements. The judge also found that he used a staffer to cut trees on Lavigne's Wakefield, Que. cottage.
Maybe it's time to start a new, genuinely liberal, Liberal Party from the ground up. Right now who can reliably say how much rot is in the existing one?
Raymond Lavigne was kicked out of the Liberal Caucus and the Liberal Party. That makes him a former Liberal. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but Stephen Harper is also a former Liberal. Good riddance to both of them.
ReplyDeleteIf they really want to have a conversation over whether a renegade senator with a few thousand in illegal expenses or a federal political party with $1 million in illegal expenses is a greater threat to Canadian democracy, that's a conversation I'd be happy to have.
ReplyDeleteI really do not care about him. Harper has 2 doozers that shouldn't be in the Senate right now,/
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Liberal, but I think there's an important distinction between Lavigne and the Con senators under investigation:
ReplyDeleteLavigne did it for himself, the Cons did it for their party.
Overall, to me this just represents the need to start the discussion on either reforming or abolishing the senate.
No longer a card-carrying Liberal? Doesn't matter a bit to the Tories or, in all likelihood, to the voting public. He was "in good standing" when he did this, wasn't he?
ReplyDelete6E - I have your point but that conversation you want isn't going to happen. This is smear fodder and that's strictly between the Harpies and the public.
Ian, no argument but you're preaching to the choir.
Annie, thanks to Lavigne there'll probably be yet another Harper doozer in the senate soon.