On Thursday, Andrew Scheer announced that he had decided to resign as Con leader claiming that he wanted to spend more time with his family.
But yesterday he decided to skip Question Period.
And as it turns out, for a very good reason.
For now he's being audited.
Outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is facing an internal audit over the use of party funds to cover his children’s private school tuition.
Two sources told the Star Friday night that the Conservative Fund board, which manages the party’s finances and counts former prime minister Stephen Harper as a member, has ordered a forensic audit into the party’s expenditures.
And to make matters worse for Scheer, if that's possible. It seems that Stephen Harper is not amused.
Harper is said to be furious over the expenses, according to one source with direct knowledge of the former prime minister’s thinking. Members of the Conservative Fund, who hold tremendous sway on the party’s operations, feel that the tuition expenses were deliberately withheld from the board.
Which since the Cons are still very much the Harper Party, amounts to the kiss of death.
And probably explains why Scheer resigned so suddenly.
Although the first person to be fired is Dustin van Vugt, the Cons's executive director.
Van Vugt, who was appointed on the recommendation of Harper himself, was responsible for quarterbacking the Conservatives’ last leadership race in 2017. With the party now facing a surprise leadership race, his departure would mean a considerable loss of institutional memory at a crucial juncture.
Van Vugt has admitted he approved the use of party funds to reimburse Scheer for the cost of his children’s private schooling but says he did nothing wrong.
Which has some wondering about the fairness of it all:
And makes me wonder whether this growing scandal is more than just about money and angry donors. And why nobody to my knowledge has asked Scheer this obvious question:
Why did he insist on sending his children to a private Catholic school when there is a good Catholic public school in his own neighbourhood. And is it because he considers even Catholic public schools too "liberal."
And if so, what would that say about Scheer's religious fanaticism?
Or what he might have done if he had won the election.
And the good news?
Since the many religious fanatics in the Con caucus have allowed Scheer to hang on as leader until a new one is chosen...
He'll still be a moving target.
So the scandal will only keep on growing, and poisoning the Cons.
And when I look at these numbers:
I predict that Justin Trudeau is going to find the next election a lot easier than the last one...
The Con media might do well to focus on the Scheer chaos of their preferred party's civil war, versus parsing the tea leaves of Chrystia Freeland's mandate letter for hints of Justin Trudeau's supposedly impending resignation. But then, these are the same pundits who think they can find some sort of scandal buried in the symbolism of his socks. I believe if you read any of the mandate letters backwards, it says "Paul is dead." Except replace "Paul" with "Canadian journalism" and "Andrew Scheer's career."
ReplyDeleteYour refering to a debunked theory, so replacing Paul inna debunk theory would suggest its just a false conspiracy theory that Scheer's Career and Canadian Journalism are dead, when the first is straight up true and second is in the process of death, like a terminally ill patient that clings to life while on the edhe demise.
DeleteHi Jackie....The Con media doesn't know what to do with itself. It debased itself trying to bring down Trudeau but he survived and they ended up looking like fools. It's interesting that the same thing happened in the UK during its election campaign. We need to make sure that we can come up with ways to pressure the media until it learns to be more neutral and professional in its coverage of politics.
DeleteJustin Trudeau IS going to resign,eventually before the next election, because he wants to do Dalton McGunity and not Kathleen Wynn, and that is the first action Trudeau has done in a long time that I actually respect, he is putting his country and party before his vanity for once.
ReplyDeleteAnd there are worse choices for successor then Freeland, I can see Freeland being more reasonable and cooperative with the NDP then say Morneau. See I'm actually being nice to Trudeau for once.
It might be the fact that I'm stoned on cold medication right now hehehehe.
So you are dreaming in technicolor but it's because you're high. I guess you'd have to be inebriated to take anything Andrew Coyne says seriously. But clearly you didn't bother to read any of those articles I linked to or check your rump party's empty war chest. Here's another, not that you'll bother to read that one either. For the 16,777,216th time, Trudeau is restructuring his organization like any competent executive does when faced with challenging circumstances. He's not walking in the snow. And nobody gives a damn about Jagmeet the joke and the irrelevant, broke-ass NDP.
DeleteThere's no function in Google Blogspot to block brigaders, so Simon really needs to put you on mute. Quit being the office drunk at the Christmas party and go take some more NyQuil. Maybe a few bottles of it.
It's a minority parliament, broke or not the NDP is not irrelivant.
DeleteAnd I'm just one person sharing an opinion, I'm not brigader.
Why are you taking it so personally Christa Freeland would make a much better Prime Minister.
And his walk in the snow in more likely to actual come in year 3 or 4 of his term, so he can take all the baggage with him, which Christa takes the credit, its actually smart. I'm actually being nice here,wow.
I'm not taking it personally. I'm fed up with phony progressives attempting to drive wedges in the party while underestimating and undermining this very capable prime minister, whose "baggage" is the result of media lies and betrayals from within. Would Chrystia be a good leader? Yes. Is her time now? No. Minority governments don't last four years and you know that, so his alleged resignation would be in a year to 18 months at which point you'd supposedly be rid of him sooner rather than later. That's the preposterous conspiracy theory that's being floated as a result of this mandate letter and being used to sabotage his second mandate, and I'm not having it. Especially not when it comes from the likes of Coyne, Curran or Emmett Macfarlane and mirrored by NDP partisans who have been out to get this man for a long time. And yes the fourth-place and broke NDP is irrelevant as long as the BQ is a secondary option for this parliament, the rest of their platform overlaps with the Liberals, and they only need 14 votes to pass any bills. They don't have long-term viability either as long as their finances continue to suck. As for Trudeau's walk in the snow, sorry but you're going to have to wait quite awhile. Read the links, take your Sudafed and go to bed. Merry Christmas.
DeleteDipper logic goes something like this. Trudeau brought the Liberal party back from the dead at the expense of the NDP and their political vision therefore he must be bad. The piece of logic that's missing is that there is a global move to the right and because of this the NDP did not stand a snowballs chance in hell of forming the next government. As Harper and others have demonstrated, once in power the Cons are very good at quietly plundering the institutions the NDP and others spent so much effort and years in building up. If the dippers were doing their job they should be working with the Liberals to protect what we already have while pushing them on policy decisions such as pharmacare, flexible employment training/guaranteed income and not the mistaken belief that getting rid of bad Trudeau will propel them to victory. Perhaps some day but definitely not now as there is still a strong political wind blowing towards the right!
DeleteRT
Calling Trudeau capable is a stretch.
DeleteGyor, are you a Dipper or a Con? Or maybe a ConDip or DipCon? Perhaps a Trippy-Dipper or just CONfused. Either way, look at JT's near 20% lead as preferred PM. That's more than capable if you're capable of understanding that through your cloud of JT Derangement Syndrome. Put away the drugs and try a dose of reality for a change.
DeleteJD
Liberal logic... The NDP are in bed with the CPC. Too arrogant however to recall the times the NDP voted against a Con government or the number of times the Liberals supported the Conservatives.
DeleteDipperCon/BernieBrat/Corbynista logic: Horseshoe politics, aka two sides of the horse's ass politics, is a neoliberal centrist shill conspiracy theory. (Drink!) Hillary Freeland is a war criminal who would be more amenable to the parliamentary peaceniks who support dictators upholding the democratic will of the people. Down with the monarchy, yet she deserves to be coronated as queen immediately and depose Heartthrob Hitler, because he's simultaneously incompetent yet wily enough to trick voters into supporting the crypto-fascist Liberals through "extortion." The NDP does not echo CPC rhetoric, but Justin Bieber Trudeau is a fraudulent celebrity who was only elected because of his last name and pretty hair. Now check out Jagmeet's traps and flashy duds as he takes a vow of poverty from the driver's seat of his BMW. The NDP will not support the Conservatives, yet voted with the Conservatives to investigate alleged Liberal ties to Chinese communists, who are bad because they're not South American communists. Pay no attention to Conservative ties to the same Chinese communists. Oh, get on board the meme warfare treadmill... on and on and on it goes, where it stops, nobody knows...
DeleteMan, do I ever wish Simon had a whole team of Chrystias as Santa's elves to help moderate this place, because it's turning into a populist-troll graffiti wall. Now that the blue wave has dried up, it's starting to reek of rotten oranges in here. The sea lions have once again escaped from the aquarium.
Relevant xkcd. https://www.xkcd.com/386/
Hi Gyor.....I'm sorry to hear that you are ill and I hope you feel better soon. However, watch out for that cold medication,for it can distort your judgement. Justin Trudeau will retire one day but I would guess that would only be after the end of the next mandate, which would keep him in power until at least 2025. And if Freeland takes over after that, we are looking at the Liberals being in power until at least 2029. So make sure you pace yourself because it's
DeleteIgoing to be a long and hard slog...
Hi Jackie...Alas I have no elf army to help me moderate the comments, but Callum of Elgin has being doing a fine job in my absence. He now has the confidence to deep six vulgar Con comments without hesitation, after making a copy to share with me when I return. And I don't mind the ones he lets through, because they make good target practice for you and the others, who treat them with the respect they deserve....☠
Delete"He'll still be a moving target."
ReplyDeleteThe Cons are so stupid to keep Scheer on as interim leader while the stench of scandal hangs over him. I cant think of a better way to piss off Con donors than by having Mr. Priviliged trot out in QP to spew his usual bullshit until a new leader is chosen. They should have tossed the bum out but thought they'd look united by keeping him on. That may work for the fact deprived types but for the party as a whole, it will cause deep internal divisions that will fester like a rotting corpse for months and will surely lead to an all out Con eat Con leadership race. It'll be ugly, it'll divide and I'll love every minute of it.
JD
Hi JD....I believe the religious fanatics in the Con caucus must have influenced the vote to allow Scheer to stay. And then of course if they had dismissed him they would be stuck with Leona Alleslev as interim leader, and that would have been a disaster. I saw a clip of her the other day and it was hilarious. Scheer knew that of course and from what I hear it's one of the reasons the Con establishment is angry with Scheer. Like many others I can't see Scheer lasting much more than a month. One last Christmas in the big house and he'll be gone....
DeleteI'm enjoying your pictures of the broken Andrew Scheer. How the mighty have fallen. It seems just like yesterday that Weak Andy was predicting he'd win a majority, and now look at him. Now he's just a snivelling Con caught up in a sordid scandal, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he crucified himself. I'm sure a lot of Con supporters must be thinking of that too. They were so sure they were going to win, but losers are losers are losers,....
ReplyDeleteHi anon....Thank you, I'm enjoying those pictures too. I remember mean and arrogant he was when Hamish told him they were heading for a majority. But sadly for him that didn't last long and it has been all down hill from then. Hopefully though, the end will be the best. Down Con down!!!!
DeleteWhat would Jesus do. There is no way weak andy can reamain as leader know, he is not entitled to his entitlements. It is so isightful into the heart of the con party that weak andy was number one by a gay conversion or two and Mad Max was number two. Is this really a party Canada should take seriously?
ReplyDeleteJust as a refresher: Erin the Tool was #3, Brad Gay-Basher Trost was #4, and Michael the Misfit Carbon Tax Guy Chong was #5. The rest are retired, lost their seats, irrelevant no-names, or dead.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Conservative_Party_of_Canada_leadership_election
Hi Steve....What would Jesus do? I think he'd take one look at those craven Cons and warn everyone not to go anywhere near them, or else. For I think that most people can agree that whatever the Cons are these days, they are neither decent or Canadian...
DeleteSomeone has to say it in public. Andrew Scheer was an insurance fraud that came close to running the country. Do the conservatives car so little about Canada they would chose this guy as leader, or Mad Max as the alternate. Communism became reality because about 200 people were true believers. In the world today if the media runs with you, you have authority, that journalism would never allow. God Damm the Man
ReplyDeleteHi Steve....well it did take 13 ballots to elect Scheer, and there are strong rumours that the vote was fixed, which would explain why the ballots were burned as soon as they were counted. So nobody should have been surprised by Scheer's ugly campaign. It was in the cards, and I doubt the next leader will be any better....
ReplyDeleteNext MSM scandal the Light Rail cancellation in Hamilton, talk about moving the goal posts. The NDP people dont need no light rail, they can take the bus.
ReplyDeleteWell, that is a scandal if it is true. 21st-century cities need modern public transport. No other way to cut down on ecocidal cars.
ReplyDelete