Stephane Dion is quoted as saying he thought key figures in the Sponsorship Scandal were unfairly punished when they were banned forever from the Liberal Party. It is not the only example of Stephen Dion rebuilding the Liberal Party to look like the old Liberal Party. What has not been reported is that a scandal-tainted figure from the Paul Martin government and an early supporter of Dion's leadership bid, David Smith of Pontiac, has a position in Dion's office.

Stephane Dion is generating pointless publicity.:

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is facing questions about whether he supports welcoming back in to the party one of the key figures from the sponsorship scandal.

Dion told Quebec newspaper Le Soleil in remarks published Wednesday that he has no objections to Marc-Yvan Cote being allowed to resume his Liberal membership.

Cote, a former party organizer in Quebec, was one of 10 members banned for life from the party by former prime minister Paul Martin in the wake of the sponsorship scandal.

Dion added that Cote's punishment was "exaggerated,'' and that he'd recognized his error and shouldn't be penalized for life.

Just what was Cote punished for?

During the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, Cote testified that he received $120,000 in $100 bills from the executive director of the party's Quebec wing. He distributed that money to 12 Liberal candidates in the 1997 federal election.

Cote was the bagman, trusted to move large amounts of unmarked bills from point A to point B -- no receipts, no records.

Even if Stephane Dion is right in his assessment that Cote was ill-treated by the Liberal Party desperate to shed its image as a den of thieves and gangsters, he is drawing attention back to the Sponsorship Scandal, and in a negative way. At a time when the Liberal Party is trying to reinvent itself and bring itself out of the shadow of the scandalous Chretien-Martin years, there is no upside to making these statements with regards to Cote. Instead, every political enemy of the Liberal Party will point to this and say that nothing has changed. Even worse, they'll say that Stephane Dion is trying to return to the bad old days.

Normally I would say that is a bit of a stretch. Are we making too much of an ill-considered comment?

I don't think so.

Remember David Smith? He was the Liberal MP for the riding of Pontiac in Quebec, across the river from Ottawa. He lost his bid for re-election in 2006, coming in third behind Conservative Lawrence Cannon and the Bloc Quebecois candidate. His dramatic failure to hold his riding despite the built-in advantages he should have enjoyed as the incumbent in a heavily federalist riding was in no small part because of a scandal involving Abotech, the company run by the Smith family out of his home. It is alleged that contracts were directed to Abotech by Frank Brazeau, David Smith's cousin, who worked in the Ministry of Public Works.

As a former MP, David MP was an ex officio delegate to the Liberal Party leadership convention. David Smith supported Stephane Dion from the start.

So where is David Smith now? On the outside looking in, perhaps? I mean, the Liberal Party is rebuilding and reinventing itself. No room for scandal-tainted MPs from the past, right?

Wrong.

I have it on good authority that David Smith has a job in Stephane Dion's office.

Who knows? Maybe Frank Brazeau is there too. I haven't been able to establish that, but I wouldn't be surprised. Stephane Dion doesn't seem to get it. Canadians have not stopped associating the word "Liberal" with "scandal" and "unethical".

It should be said that David Smith was cleared by the Ethics Commissioner, but then the Ethics Commissioner was satisfied that Smith sold Abotech to his wife and teenage children, and then took Smith on his word when Smith said he did not know anything about what was going on in the business, even though Smith's signature appeared on documents dated after the alleged transfer of control. So technically in the clear, Smith should not be an issue, I suppose. But the fact is that Brazeau did lose his job, Abotech did lose all the contracts, and Smith did lose the election. So why take a chance on Smith?

Consider that Smith was a early Dion supporter. Despite Smith's past, Stephane Dion might have felt compelled to reward Smith with some sort of position.

But then isn't that the problem? Work being handed out to allies and other supporters? Financial consideration for political help without too much concern about the fitness of the person to receive that consideration?

Between hiring David Smith and his comments about Marc-Yvan Cote's lifetime ban, Stephane Dion is not really distancing himself from previous Liberal admiinistrations. In fact, he seems to be going out of his way to show that not much has changed at all.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:44 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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