Good for you, Jonathan. Holy cow, I hope this means that the whole truth about weird Liberal tactics is beginning to unfold ... and the timing is perfect.

The protective political silence surrounding much of this stuff has been sickening.

I hope you've started a whole new approach to electoral activities.

Uhm, Why is this in the tyee? There isn't enough whole cloth here to make a thong. Liberal corruption, so what else is new?

the libs are done for a while. maybe a long time if bob rae becomes the new leader. nothing could make the cpc happier, i'm sure, except maybe belinda.

Who really cares if a couple of spoon-fed young Liberals are playing dirty in their youth-filled efforts to be like their daddies.

This might play better as a brief in a UBC newsletter or a headline in the Province.

Here's a little secret that some of you young Liberals may not be aware of yet. Most of the world outside UBC's gates have real things to worry about like bills to pay, walls to paint and sleep to catch up on.

It would appear a few still wet-behind-the-ears political wannabes have been caught doing dirties.

So, what's new?

Isn't it great that our tax dollars are propping up expensive institutions for these not hard working types to practice screwing us just like real, more mature Liberals.

The apprenticeship starts early.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! 5 out of 6 commenters are saying they prefer the official silence -- as opposed to somebody saying the emperor has no clothes?

What's new, allan, is the intensity of hypocrisy, where people are willing and eager to shoot themselves in the foot at the first sign of political honesty.

We'll send you guys some of our young neocons from the States - then you'll know REAL deceit, incompetence and profligacy.

I for one am glad that the bloggosphere is willing and able to say that the 'heir(s) apparent' have no clothes.

As to the question of why this has been put onto the Tyee, at the very least Tyee has not left this 'unsaid'. A major failing of the MSM and many of the other forms of information media. Something that bandwidth, time or page space limits the other media, but not here. Thankfully.

Ultimately my read of this article is that it points out that the 'young' liberals are not in any position to challenge for the leadership of our nation. Much more than this lack of skill in real leadership they are busy crafting bylaws and other administrative traps for their opponents - good preparation to become the future mandarins in our system and trap the rest of us in such reams of red tape.

If you are praying for salvation from the CONformers by the LIEberals, think twice as this article points out some more of the LIEberal warts.

murdock

Wake up man. This story was on the sidebar at the Tyee more than a week ago. It needed more coverage like you need another hole in the head!

I don't know about the alleged transgressions of your liberals, but remember when I came back from the war of my generation in Vietnam, I watched as our government baited, goaded, tricked, and fooled students into actions that would look bad on film, which was already set up and ready to catch the action.

I'm not making any such allegations here, but you ought to make sure you understand that liberal groups are often seeded by governments with provocateurs, as was done in the US in the 1960's and 1970's, and later.

If that doesn't work, they can always have an aircraft go down, as was done with John Tower, Hale Boggs, Mel Carnahan, and Paul Wellstone.

Why don't I see any of the complainers here taking me up on my offer to send you folks some real conservatives? You can take your pick of Dubya, "Quickdraw" Cheney, Wolfowitz, "Brownie" (FEMA) Brown, or the newly-revealed crooked Domestic Policy Advisor to start.

Then, we'll send along Clarence Thomas to help you with your legal stuff - we'll even include the porn.

gkam
Not to put too fine a point on it, gkam, and I understand you might want to download a few of your right-wingers, but we're dealing with a newly minted crew of that species up here right now as well. In fact, our ‘great leader’ is just back from a 48-hour friendship and solidarity tour of Afghanistan.
Sooo…If it's all the same to you - and I wouldn't want this to be taken as unfriendly - hang onto 'em for the moment while we try to deal with our own version of the breed.

As to this article, I think the negative reaction isn't so much to the nature of the story itself as it is a response to the lack of meat between two slices of bland white bread. There are, as a couple of posters have noted, more important issues that aren’t getting ‘any’ coverage.
Cheers.

(sigh), . . .

Well, I tried.

Thanks,

gk

Last chance: You don't have to actually keep them forever, . . only until we can get them into the dock at the Hague for trial, for Crimes Against Humanity.

G West

Unlike you I do have other things to do with my time than to check into every sidebar link on Tyee.

Great that you have seen this before, many others may not have. Moreover they may have had hopes that the LIEberals would be the 'salvation' from the CONformers. Those readers need more items like this to remind them that the stink coming from the entire system is truly bad.

If you are volunteering the administer the hole in the head, I'll take pistols a dawn.

gkam
Good luck with that, by the way. Truthfully, I've been trying to figure out how we could use Dick Cheney's marksmanship up here but I don't think Harper's a hunter.

Dunno how familiar you are with political dynamics in Canada. The Liberals (note large L) are not necessarily and certainly not always liberal (small l). The distinction is an important one among progressives and probably accounts at least partially for the lack of sympathy for a lightweight story written about a non-issue by a known political hack.

There's more to it than that, of course, but if you hang around the site very much you'll soon pick it up. So, to conclude, you may not have been able to convince me to roll out the red carpet for your political cast-offs, but, I'd be more than happy to see you up here any time.
Cheers.

Murdock
No offence lad. You've gotta admit it's a non-item though. Take a quick look at the email correspondence attached to the story: If the said 'political consultant' involved had actually done anything more than he has I'd have no problem with the piece. As it is, it's a waste of space. As for assignations at dawn, I can't imagine anybody getting up early over this piece of drivel. As to the amount of time one has to spend keeping up with the current level of debate around here, I think I'll be able to handle it in 10 minutes a day.
Cheers, dude.

gkam, good to read you again, but don't be fooled by the "Liberal" name when it comes to our BC version of one or our national version for that matter...it's just a fake moustache they wear to conceal their real identity....these guys aren't liberal...otherside of the moon from that...

Anyway the meat in this story is well-hidden but it is there...

"Erik Bornman, the former Paul Martin aide and one-time Liberal operative nicknamed "Spiderman" for his late 1990s break-in to B.C. party headquarters, where a membership list allegedly resided. Bornman, an ex-provincial lobbyist who is now a UBC law student, will be a crown witness against David Basi and Bob Virk, the two fired Campbell Liberal ministerial assistants who go on trial April 24 for breech of trust following the dramatic 2003 police raid on the B.C. Legislature in connection with the sale of BC Rail.

Jamie Elmhirst, Liberal Party President for B.C. and provincial lobbyist, active also in the Campbell Liberal Party. Elmhirst and Brian Kieran were partners in a government relations firm known as Pilothouse Public Affairs. The police search following the legislative raid included the homes of some of those involved, an accounting firm, and a government relations firm later identified as Pilothouse Public Affairs. The company was begun by former Vancouver Province columnist Brian Kieran, but two of its key officials – Erik Bornman and Jamie Elmhirst -- also have strong ties to the Martin camp...the police search warrant served at their Victoria offices in the Basi/Virk case, was likely because of Erik Bornman's role in their firm until the raid."

Thanks Lynn
Now there is something to talk about. And thanks for stirring the embers, gkam.
Apparently the warrant won't be public until the 28th.

gkam: How come you left out Buddy Holly, Jim Croce and Lynrd Skynrd? I'm sure Dubya was behind those airplane incidents too. And if not Dubya, then GHW! Your tinfoil hat is showing! In Alberta, we appreciate politicians that speak their minds and actually do what they say they will do when elected, hence our continuing love for Ralph despite his best days being behind him.

Moreover, gkam, many Albertans were more than willing to look the other way when Premier Klein used to overindulge at Caesar's Steak House (well hidden from the prying eyes of the press) and then insult some of the poor indigent souls whose miserable existence has been made so much better by the mean spiritedness of the government he heads. Perhaps he was only trying to help them out with relocation funding, eh Oilbertan?

Maybe Oilbertan would also like to explain what Klein's government thinks about the rule of law, or would that be a little too embarrassing? Perhaps he should google Lorne Goddard and find out for himself. Not just Klein’s 'best' days are behind him.

klein's best days are behind him ?

what would be those best days i wonder.

oh,yes ! the ability to BLAME HIS STUPIDITY ON THE BOOZE.

now that he is dry,we know him for what he is...

INTELLECTUALLY VACANT AND A VULGAR HUMAN BEING.

Goddard was a friend of mine. What those characters tried to do to him was criminal. When he won that law suit for libel and slander I thought maybe somebody in Alberta would wake up to what had happened to the province - no such luck!

G West: I did not have to google too much to remember who Lorne Goddard is. I do remember and was simply amazed when Stock was chosen as leader of whichever party Reform morphed into before they went back to being conservatives. While I think he has mellowed somewhat, I just could not believe that someone who criticized Goddard for providing legal representation to someone, no matter how heinous their crime, could even be elected dog catcher let alone leader of the official opposition. I voted for Tom Long on the first ballot (I think the conservatives missed a real winner there, very well spoken, erudite and from Ontario to boot). As to Ralph, we rednecks are quite forgiving people actually and don't expect perfection just a certain level of honesty. Yes, Ralph has done some rather obnoxious things as alluded to but at the end of the day he comes out on the positive side of the ledger in my books.

Oilbertan
You're a gentleman. I knew Goddard well when both of our families lived in Ottawa. He moved to Edmonton and then Red Deer and we came to Victoria. We used to see each other sometimes during the summer since then but we've lost touch lately. Time passes. I always thought he was a helluva a guy and I figured any government leader who didn't take his ministers in hand any better than that was pretty spineless. Then when Klein went postal at the soup kitchen or whatever it was I knew moving to BC rather than Alberta had been the right choice. As I recall, Ralph has treated unions (teachers and health care workers) pretty shoddily there too, right?
Thanks for taking the trouble to come back and acknowledge what I'd written - I appreciate it.
BTW, I grew up in Saskatchewan so I'd guess you and I aren't far apart when it comes to certain standards - Tommy Douglas and his legacy for example. I remember when Don Getty was premier of Alberta I always thought he relied on Bill Vanderzalm to explain the hard parts to him when they both went to federal/provincial conferences.
I once looked through a book published before the war. It was a collection of Hitler’s after dinner talks, dutifully recorded and indexed. I checked to see it he’d ever said anything about Canada. The only thing I could find was a reference to a time that he’d said that a country as huge and empty and well-endowed with resources as Canada is would always be an economic success – no matter how big an idiot was leading it. I guess that could be true of Alberta too. Maybe that's too harsh. Anyway, now you know why I'm not too enamoured with Peewee Rambo too.
Cheers.