Wednesday, January 08, 2014

How Many Canucks Can A Con-Chuck Con When A Con-Chuck Up-Chucks...

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...Chuck?


From Brian Hutchinson's NaPo follow-up to Matthew Millar's original Vancouver Observer report, backed by documentary evidence, that former Conservative Party of Canada Minister and current Conservative Party of Canada appointee as 'SIRC' overseer of CSIS is lobbying the British Columbia Government for Enbridge:

...After taking the SIRC appointment in 2012, Mr. Strahl told the National Post he would continue with his consulting work, but he would not lobby governments...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Chuck Strahl Consulting Inc. formally declared itself a Northern Gateway lobbyist in December, according to the B.C. Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists filing. Mr. Strahl’s objective, according to his filing: “To arrange a meeting between [B.C.'s Deputy Premier] Rich Coleman and representatives from Northern Gateway Pipelines Inc.”...


Gosh.

That's some turn around in a little over a year, eh?

So, what does Mr. Strahl have to say for himself for playing fast and loose with the rules (i.e. he is 'technically' OK because he is not directly lobbying the government he used to be a Minister in and he is not conflicty for lobbying for a company, and its Northern Gateway project, where there may be National Security issues at play)?

Well, go have a read of Mr. Hutchinson's entire report - it's quite astounding how Mr. Strahl is willing to play us for suckers on both points mentioned above, and more.

Oh, and, of course, according to the good Mr. Strahl....

This is all the Vancouver Observer's fault.

Or some such anti-documentary evidence-type thing.


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would a major corporation need to hire a consultant to arrange a meeting? Don't they have any office staff?
Why don't they just get someone to email Coleman's staff and make an appointment?
It's either corruption or incompetence - I'm not sure which is worse.

Bill said...

Chuck said "he would not lobby government".... maybe he was of the understanding that he was 'just lobbying Rich Colman and an organized crime ring' which would be perfectly plausible given all parties involved and their respective histories.

An amazingly brazen example of bad faith, representing self interests and not surprisingly wiggling the rules to justify the conduct.

Chuck has been caught out but I doubt that really matters. Full steam (scheme) ahead they have a pipeline to railroad.

North Van's Grumps said...

Chucky was a Public Office holder, and yet the Original Document Here says otherwise:

Public Office Background: The lobbyist is not a former public office holder.

Anonymous said...

Yep, Chuck like all Cons rationalizes his indiscretions. Ethics, morality, honesty, and respect do not exist in their mindset. I say mindset rather than mindsets, because they all think the same way. That is to exploit the public purse for their own interests and at the same time condemn any unfortunate soul who really needs welfare, unless of course its Corporate welfare.

RossK said...

Anon-At-The-Top--

Indeed.

Of course, one might instead ask if this is nothing more than corporate payback for a previous job well done?

Now.

If one were really cynical one might wonder if having this thing blow up like this was not actually calculated by the associated flack-hackery. After all, the base, which shows its true face repeatedly on the comment thread to Mr. Hutchinson's piece, loves this thing. Literally.
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Bill--

Absolutely....The steam just keeps billowing ahead.

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NVG--

Ya.

I noticed that too.

I'm sure there is a bizarre and twisted prov/fed rationalization for that as well.

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Anon-Above--

Perhaps.

But I wonder if some amongst this group have not bamboozled themselves into believing that by doing 'little things' like this that must be done that they are doing right by the 'big thing' for the good and better of us all.

It's that Straussian thing, I reckon.

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