JULY 25, 2021 – The Blame Game Has Started.
The potential for an election call has given rise to the usual blame game- as in you are using taxpayer funds to pay friends or give them contracts.
It is great fun for political staff to play this game and once in awhile you can come across a real scandal. Three come to mind- Jane Stewart and the Transitional Job Fund, Shawinigate and of course the Sponsorship Scandal.
There is nothing out there like any of those right now. If we move outside of Ottawa, how many voters are staying up at night worrying about a childhood friend of the PM getting a contract? Unless you can get the police involved, the story doesn’t have legs.
However, it does make for lots of good video clips of feigned outrage by Conservative MPs. Does the CPC brain trust think that the public believes for one minute that the Conservatives would never give a contract to a friend’s company?
By the way the CPC attack team needs to learn a basic rule when developing a line of attack- always check your own house first and make sure no one on your side is doing the same thing?
Keith Beardsley is a former Deputy Chief of Staff to a Prime Minister for Issues Management. He was a senior political advisor and was involved with political research, Question Period, political attack teams and election war rooms for over 20 years.
Keith is a former Conservative political staffer with over 50 years of active involvement in Canadian politics. He is a former Deputy Chief of Staff to a Prime Minister for Issues Management and he was a senior political advisor involved with political research, Question Period, political attack teams and election war rooms for over 20 years. A well-known political pundit, Keith has appeared many times on Canadian political panels.