blevkog

Before entering politics in 2004, Emerson was the president and CEO of Canfor. Emerson still has an "unregistered pension plan" as result of his service to the company.

What the hell is an "unregistered" pension plan? Can Emerson take money from the Canfor till at will? Does Canfor pay him occassionally for being a pal, if you know what I mean?

Are all you people following the Pied Piper? If you read the article carefully, you'll see that at the end Bob Klager, Emerson's communication director said that Emerson said no such thing. Why would you believe someone who has an ax to grind as opposed to someone who represents the minister? Never mind this partisan political B.S. As a human being, if someone tells you that your best friend said you were an a__hole, would you not want to hear from your friend directly before you made an assumption? Or would you call him and tell him never to darken your doorway again.

So, Harry, when Belinda Stronach says (herself, not through a rumour or a communications director) she crossed the floor becuase she could no longer support the CPC in what it had become, a conservative party taken over by SoCons and abandoning its fiscal-conservative roots, she is of course lying. It is more that ok for Conservative pundits to dismiss that and assume that she did it to gain a cabinet post, that she was power hungry or simply a "whore".

Ok I see how this game is played - if the Conservaties are on the recieing end of bad news or bad press, then you have to have all sorts of proof and nothing is to be believed, but if anyone else is, well then it must be true because anyone who is not Conservatie is jus bad.

We have libel laws that Mr. Emmerson can use if this were not true. I take it with a grain of salt considering the source, but I don't uterly dismiss it or take the work of a communications director as gold either.

Thanks for the comments, Mike. Yes, Harry, we have the word of one person against the word of another. One a former employee and the other a paid mouthpiece for Emerson, for whom this leak might prove damaging. Of course he denies it was said - but how can he? Is he with Emerson 24/7? There is no way he can possibly know what Emerson said unless it was said in his presence, therefore his statement can be taken as BS. For what it's worth, so can Epworth's, but as Mike points out, there are lible laws for that.

If I may play Devil's advocate (and I apologize to Kevvy for not pointing this out in my e-mail), the story _is_ based on the uncorroborated word of one ex-aide, and therefore doesn't really meet the test for most serious journalists (i.e. no second source). And the story did appear in the Toronto Star, which appears at times to be the official mouthpiece of the Liberal Party of Canada.

That said, I cooked up a bag of popcorn as soon as I saw the story. If true, will unprincipled bastard get 20 lashes? Or worse, will he be forced to attend a fossil-hunting field trip with Stockwell Day? Tee-hee.

Briguy,

I knew the "risks" in posting as it says pretty clearly in the article that it is from one source. However, these comments came out 24 hours ago and there has been no official response from his office save the "he didn't say that stuff" one which is easily discreditable.

Besides, it fun stuff.