Mulroney Era Scandals

Blue Bloggingg Soapbox has a list of over 200 Liberal Scandals since being elected in 1993 - 80 under Chretien and 120 under Paul Martin.

The first thing you know is someone will say that Mulroney had scandals - yadda yadda yadda - so the Liberal's scandals don't count.

Here are Mulroney era scandals to compare to the 200 and counting.

1) The big one was Tunagate which brought down Mulroney's minister of fisheries and oceans. Fisheries minister John Fraser had overturned an order from his own inspectors and ordered a million cans of StarKist tuna released for sale to the public. The inspectors had said the tuna, packed at the StarKist plant in St. Andrews, N.B., was so badly spoiled that it wasn't even fit to be turned into catfood. The plant's owners had lobbied Fraser to release the cans for sale, saying they might shut the plant if the tuna couldn't be sold.

When the story broke, Fraser said he had sent samples of the tuna to two independent labs for testing, but those labs later said they hadn't finished their tests by the time Fraser decided to release the shipment. Six days after the scandal erupted, Mulroney asked Fraser to resign. In a twist the opposition parties were quick to exploit, Fraser and Mulroney both initially said that Mulroney had known about the original decision to release the tuna. The two men later said the prime minister had not known until the affair became public.

Fraser eventually went on to a new job, becoming Speaker in the House of Commons, but the 400 StarKist workers in St. Andrews weren't so lucky. The plant was shuttered after the company's market share slumped, and they were thrown out of work. Noone got sick though.

2) Robert Coates stepped down as defence minister in 1985 after it was revealed that he had visited a strip club in West Germany while in that country on official business.

3) Communications Minister Marcel Masse left over an alleged violation of the Canada Elections Act (he was later exonerated), followed closely by John Fraser (Tunagate).

4) In 1986, Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion Sinclair Stevens stepped down because of conflict of interest allegations related to a $2.6-million loan to a Stevens family company. In December 2004, a Federal Court judge declared null and void the findings of the Parker Inquiry. The court ruled that Parker's definition of conflict of interest exceeded that in the guidelines governing ministers in the Mulroney Cabinet, and that Stevens' behaviour did not violate the guidelines that governed him.

5) André Bissonnette, the minister of state for transport, resigned in 1987 while the RCMP investigated his alleged involvement in land speculation.

6) Roch La Salle, who served Mulroney in the public works, and supply and services portfolios, left cabinet the same year after being charged with demanding a bribe and accepting money from businesses looking for government favours. The charges were later dropped.

7) Conflict of interest allegations involving a personal loan felled Supply and Services Minister Michel Coté in 1988.

8) Bernard Valcourt stepped down in 1989 after pleading guilty to an impaired driving offence.

9) In 1990, current Quebec Premier Jean Charest had to leave his two posts as minister for fitness and amateur sport, and minister for youth after trying to talk to a judge about an ongoing case.

10) And, finally, in 1991, Housing Minister Alan Redway offered his resignation after being charged over joking about having a gun while boarding a flight at the Ottawa airport.

11) Quebec MP Michel Gravel, who in 1986 was charged with 50 counts of fraud and influence peddling. He later pleaded guilty to 15 charges, paid a $50,000 fine and served four months in jail.

Notice it's about one a year and that a couple were not politically related and some were exonerated!

Also note, that they either resigned or were fired or served jail time - unlike most of the Liberals.

As a Conservative, I'll stand behind that record against the Liberal record anyday.