Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Does Belinda Stronach Write John McCallum's Speeches?

Some things will never be different
Are you hoping for a miracle?
--Bloc Party

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Stephen Taylor puts together a handy video of the Liberals blathering incoherently about the "law" in regards to their "mandatory" severence payout of $500,000 to David Dingwall.

Here's da Hansard:

Hon. John McCallum (Minister of National Revenue, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, with respect to the severance package, the government lawyers have been asked to advise the government on what is the minimum separation package that the government can pay given the relevant laws and given the policy framework.

I can list the relevant laws if the members will listen. They are the Royal Canadian Mint Act, the Financial Administration Act, and the crown corporation general regulations.

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I know that a couple of days ago in the House this minister liked to quote the common law. There is no common law saying the government has to pay severance to someone who voluntarily quits. That may be the common practice of the Liberal Party, but it is not the common law.

Once again, given that there is no requirement to pay severance to someone who quits voluntarily, and given that Mr. Dingwall received hundreds of thousands of dollars he should not have received, why is the Prime Minister contemplating giving him any money at all?

McCallum does his best Belinda impression in the media scrum afterwards: "Blah blah blah, law,. And blah blah blah law. Talking point #1, blah blah, talking point #2. Blah law talking point #1 again. (Repeat in horrible French)"

PS: if you haven't seen it, it's new to you: Here's The Donald's blog.

UPDATE: In case you missed it, here's the original Don. --there ya go

3 comments:

Don said...

The Donald - I thought the link was going to point to my site!

Shamrocks! said...

Don: Now you're in the game.

Don said...

Thank you.