Back in the day, when the Rail and Sea - sorry, the Wolf's Den - no I think it was the Chew-Choos Café. Actually I think it was back in the Big Scoop days, I remember someone posing an interesting question: what's the biggest scandal a politician can survive?
Everyone agreed it was to have an affair. After all, an affair was enough for Gordon Campbell to take the liberal party away from Gordon Wilson. But that was then, now it appears that Gordon is taking political scandals to glorious new heights.
That's right, it's been a full year since Gordon finally got the courage to confirm what too many think: drinking and driving isn't a crime, it's a mistake. Even though he drove after getting "I loughv youh guys" drunk, the press still respected him in the morning, letting the story die in less then a month.
Now here we are, one year later, Gordon is back in Maui and criminal charges once again grace the front pages. This time with raids on the legislature. For weeks now and as of press time, the only thing that is really known is his official position "I know nothink."
However, in saying that Gordon must be mistaken. The two aids being raided are David Basi, aide to Finance Minister Gary Collins and Bob Virk, aide to Transport Minister Judith Reid. One gets fired and the other gets suspended - apparently decided with a coin toss, since he knew nothing.
Perhaps my favorite part, though, is how the papers are trying to link the whole thing to Paul Martin without getting any dust on their Gordon boy. Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Christy Clark, however, is finding it difficult to avoid the dust as the police have now acquired documents from both her husband and brother who are bigwigs in Martin's B.C. camp.
Loose lips sink ships but tight ones don't seem to stop any leaking. With so little information available all that is left is to lay out the facts and find the six degrees of separation. Stories have linked everything from money laundering to recent raids on marijuana grow operations on Vancouver Island. Not to mention several suggestions of links to the sale of BC Rail.
But with everyone jumping this from a provincial to federal level what about municipal? That's right, the more time that passes the more speculation reaches immense proportions. If you stretch it enough you could even find a local link. After all, if the sale of BC Rail is involved then one might have to look at the steering committee of said sale, in which I believe our mayor played a significant role. Wouldn't that be something if the donation of the Nexen lands to Squamish were tied into this
In a week or so, when the dust settles all this could just be fiction, and I for one am looking forward to the even stranger truth.
