A month after the Conservative Party tried to exploit a Liberal Party financial scandal to bring down Prime Minister Paul Martin's government,the Tories are embroiled in a scandal of their own and are now stumbling in the polls.
Popular confidence in the Conservatives, the main opposition party, was first shaken by their willingness to ally themselves with the Bloc Quebecois, a party dedicated to separating Quebec from the country, to force a confidence vote and early election.
But since losing that effort by a single vote in the House of Commons on May 19, the party has seen its fortunes go into reverse at least partly because of its awkward handling of tape recordings made and perhaps doctored by Gurmant Grewal, a Conservative lawmaker. As described in the news media, the recordings appear to show top aides to Martin obliquely suggesting to Grewal that he and his wife would get unspecified rewards in return for switching parties in time for the crucial vote.
dubious tapes
The twist in fortunes began just before the parliamentary confidence vote when Grewal announced that he had several hours of tapes of conversations with Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and Tim Murphy, Martin's chief of staff and his top political operative, during which they hinted at the offers.
Since then, however, several forensic specialists hired by the news media have said the tapes had unexplained gaps, although a specialist working for the Conservatives denied that anything had been altered. The federal ethics commissioner, Bernard Shapiro, is investigating the matter, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are deciding whether to begin a criminal investigation.
Since Grewal released the tapes and described his conversations, he has taken a leave of absence from the House of Commons, saying he is under great stress, and has refused to talk to the news media. Nina Grewal, his wife, also a member of Parliament, has said she did not know of the conversations, which several media reports suggest were initiated by Grewal to seek diplomatic and senatorial appointments for him and his wife.
While many Conservative lawmakers tried to distance themselves from Grewal, Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party leader, defended him and used the tapes to deliver more attacks against the government. He called on Murphy and Dosanjh to step aside until the accusations that they offered jobs for votes were settled. Other opposition leaders have also called on the two officials to go on leave.
Murphy has not publicly commented, but the prime minister has come to his defense, saying Murphy did nothing wrong. Dosanjh has also denied any wrongdoing.
"The way to make it work," Murphy is heard saying to Grewal on the tapes, is to "avoid any kind of commitment that involves an explicit trade."
falling numbers
The Liberals and the Conserv-atives potentially stand to lose ground in the investigations, since the extent of any doctoring of the tapes has yet to be established. But so far, the Conservatives have suffered the most. They had fallen behind the Liberals by 14 points in one poll published last week -- only two months after they appeared poised to take power because of a Liberal Party financial scandal in Quebec.
An editorial on Monday in the National Post, a conservative daily, called on Harper to consider giving up his leadership because of the party's falling fortunes.
"Recent events have put into question whether he is the man who should be leading the Conservatives," the editorial said. "We cannot say with confidence that Mr. Harper is the man to take the Conservatives to power."
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was