John Ivison, National Post
September 26.2006

A Daytime Nightmare for Liberals

There was a weird sense of deja vu yesterday as Bob Rae -- seeking to deflect questions about leadership rival Joe Volpe's campaign activities -- seized on a catchphrase often used by Paul Martin during the sponsorship scandal.

Referring to allegations "new" members signed up by the Volpe camp included dead people, Rae insisted the Liberal party had to "try to get to the bottom of these things," similar to words Martin used when talking about the Liberal sponsorship antics in Quebec.

Minutes later at his own press conference, Volpe accused the "party establishment" of being out to get him, before being chased down the street by two "ghosts," wearing white sheets and signs reading, "Volpe Has Spirits."

Meantime, word emerged of a widow who was shocked to find her dead husband is still supporting Michael Ignatieff.

It all amounted to a nightmare of a day for the Liberals, who have been hoping the sponsorship scandal was a fading memory. No such luck. Once again the impression given voters is of a bunch of hustlers trying to cheat each other just to keep their hands in between elections.

Throw in the sight of disgraced former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano defending Volpe -- suggesting he's being picked on because he's Italian -- and the published excerpts of Jean Chretien loyalist Eddie Goldenberg painting Martin as treacherous, disloyal and deceitful, and the words balder and dash come to mind at talk of Liberal renewal.

The day began in suitably Kafka-esque fashion. Rae called a press conference to announce that leadership rival Hedy Fry was withdrawing from the race to throw her support to him. Since Fry was not chosen as first, second or third choice for leader by any of the 1,000 respondents to an EKOS Research poll on the weekend, it is safe to assume this has not changed the race's momentum. "She literally got zero. I have never seen that in over 20 years of polling," said EKOS's Frank Graves.

At Volpe's press conference, in characteristic fashion, he said he knew what was going on -- he was going on -- despite being enveloped in another scandal.

He didn't bother to deny the allegations of irregular signing practices, which largely involve members being signed up without having to pay the membership fee, merely noting the party had a process to deal with "errors and anomalies." The allegations concerned just "a handful of individuals out of 34,000" his team had signed up as new Liberals. "Everything I've done is for the betterment of the party," he said.

More pertinent, in his view, was his status as an "outsider, perhaps not acceptable to the establishment of the party."

"I might not be Canadian enough," he complained. This was manipulative humbug. The Liberal party would elect a Klingon as leader if its members thought he could beat Stephen Harper. Still, it helped deflect attention from the allegations long enough for Volpe to make his getaway, with the two ghost-like protesters in hot pursuit.

As if all that weren't enough for a good two-act farce, reports began to circulate that the Ignatieff campaign was also the subject of complaints over irregular memberships, including 11 members in Brampton who all gave the same home address, which turns out to be an Indian restaurant. And then there was the widow whose husband is still a voting member, despite his death two years ago. Sachin Aggarwal, national director of operations for Ignatieff, said he hadn't seen a copy of the allegations but was "not too concerned."

He said there was nothing to indicate the dead man was listed as an Ignatieff supporter. "The allegations are unfortunate but you would expect the heat to rise before the delegate selection meetings [this weekend]," he said.

"There are 186,521 members on the Liberal membership list. How many are at issue?"

If the answer to this question is very few, it is only because the party has not delved too deeply to find out otherwise.

Rae said yesterday his campaign team has conducted itself in conformity with the rules. That may come back to haunt him if it were to emerge, for example, that a large number of ethnic voters he'd purportedly signed up responded to nosy reporters with a, "Bob Who?"

© National Post 2006