Senator Pam Wallin claims she's the victim of a vendetta against her by two Tory senators resentful of her high profile - Marjory LeBreton and Carolyn Stewart-Olsen.
Ms. Wallin said she was targeted by Marjory LeBreton, then the leader of the government in the Senate, and Carolyn Stewart Olsen, Mr. Harper’s former press secretary before joining the Senate, because she was outspoken in caucus and occasionally critical of the government. “They resented me because I was an activist senator,” Ms. Wallin told the Senate Wednesday.
The former broadcaster, who has paid back more than $150,000 in improperly claimed travel expenses, said the motion to dump her from the Senate that has been made by Government Senate Leader Claude Carignon is politically motivated.
“The real intent is to remove a perceived liability – namely me,” said Ms. Wallin. The aim, she said, is to appease the Conservatives who will meet at a party convention at the end of this month. They and other Canadians are angry, she said, after media reports inflamed public opinion. Those reports were based on 14 leaks from senators, said Ms. Wallin.
Wallin's contention that jealous Tory senators were gunning for her is, in fact, plausible. Long before the current scandals erupted it was known that the newcomers' celebrity and rise to prominence was resented by the Old Guard has-beens like LeBreton. Little things like Harper calling Duffy his "most valuable" senator really grated on them.
In the meantime, LeBreton has been dumped as Tory Senate leader and today Stewart-Olsen resigned from the internal economy committee.
5 comments:
Like you I had noticed there was some friction from the old school Senators to Duffy and Wallin long before any of this current scandal even started to peek out, so I find Wallin making this case at the minimum plausible, and arguable more credible than what I've heard from LeBreton. Besides, LeBreton had cause to worry about Wallin being a threat for her job, even if it wasn't from Wallin herself Walling had much better media presence and corporate connections than LeBreton and one could easily have seen Harper deciding to make Wallin the Senate face of his government despite seniority issues, after all it is not like Harper has ever placed much eight on the value of seniority in anything he's been involved with. As for Stuart-Olsen, well given her known history and nature I would not find it hard to believe that she would take a dislike to Wallin seeing her activism and clear passion in it as a potential liability to a threat to her and/or her master, Harper.
I will say I did not find LeBreton sounding very convincing when she responded to Wallin in the Senate today. She sounded less than convincing to me, and I wonder to how many others as well, we will see.
LeBreton's response to Wallin, in the Senate, was hysterically funny. it wasn't what she said, it was her voice, how it kept coming up to a pitch at the end of each phrase. For my money, LeBreton was less truthfull than Wallin.
Did the other senators like wallin and duffy? Most likely not. They had had to contend with them while they were journalists. Then there was the small mater of them being invited to all those ocassions and the fund raising they did for the Cons. Which of course brings me to my question. if Wallin and Duffy were out and about and expensing things they shouldn't have, while fund raising for the Cons, do the Cons intend to return the money. Well it would have to come under the "heading" of ill gotten gains, the fruit of the posionous tree, you know its the gift which keeps giving.
Just when stevie thought he had something like a free trade deal. If stevie is lying about the duffy/wallin thing, how can we trust him to tell us the truth about the E.U. trade deal.
What's the odds of all the bickering countries of the E.U. confirming the trade deal?
Between Wallin and LeBreton . . . well, I'm sure LeBreton is lying. But I'm pretty sure Wallin is lying too. She's an experienced media person, she's just better at it. I plan to mentally overcompensate a little for her good delivery.
I'm hearing that they're planning to set LeBreton onto Duffy next. She doesn't seem to believe that Duffy has a tape recording of her.
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