Of course I don't live in either riding or have any knowledge of the actual campaigns.

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Originally posted by Privateer:
I don't think we can ever call a "sure thing" in Toronto.

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That's why I said "as close as possible" to a sure thing.

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I'm very aware of what overconfidence did last time - for a while I was even starting to think Michael Shapcott had a shot in Toronto Centre.

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Originally posted by ctrl190:

Didn't Shapcott lose by over 12 000 votes? That is much more than an abrupt strategic NDP-turn-Lib vote.

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Oh yes, it was totally naive on my part - but he ran a much better campaign than Graham. I received literature several times and he was way ahead in the sign war.

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Originally posted by ctrl190:
Didn't Shapcott lose by over 12 000 votes? That is much more than an abrupt strategic NDP-turn-Lib vote.

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Not really. It's reasonable to think that as many as five to six thousand votes shifted from the NDP to the Libs based on Martin's week of begging. It was definitely going to be a lot closer than it ended up being. And it's definitely going to be a lot closer this time.

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Originally posted by Scott Piatkowski:
It was definitely going to be a lot closer than it ended up being. And it's definitely going to be a lot closer this time.

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Originally posted by me:
So, who else has reports about Beaches? And how long will it take Maria Minna's Mini-Me to put up to refute any reports that say she's losing?

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Linking to this blog posting should bring him back for sure

Iñaki Mondragon

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In 2003, the Ottawa Hill Times documented the existence of Maria Minna’s trust fund: “[O]thers have and had trust funds, including Alfonso Gagliano, Raymond Lavigne, and Maria Minna.”

I have already commented on this blog about the problematic nature of the trust funds of two other Toronto Liberals, Tony Ianno, and Art Eggleton. Trust funds allow MPs to raise unlimited amounts of money under the table from undisclosed donors, and the MPs do not have to account for how they spent their money.

Therefore, the voters of Toronto deserve answers to the following three questions:

• Who donated to Maria Minna’s trust fund?
• Does Maria Minna still maintain a trust fund?
• How has Maria Minna spent the money in his trust fund?

All Canadians also deserve to know the answer to the following question:

Did Transelec Inc. donate to Maria Minna’s trust fund?

Here’s the scoop on Transelec Inc. and CIDA, where Maria Minna was minister...

Greater transparency can only strengthen our democracy, if not necessarily the Liberal Party of Canada.

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[ 09 January 2006: Message edited by: Scott Piatkowski ]

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Originally posted by Scott Piatkowski:
So, who else has reports about Beaches? And how long will it take Maria Minna's Mini-Me to put up to refute any reports that say she's losing?

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During the 12 years that Maria Minna has been the Member of Parliament for Beaches-East York, she has never had a trust fund

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Has The Hill Times published a retraction? Has The National Post? Have you asked for one from either paper? How did the media come to have the impression that Maria Minna had a trust fund? Why doesn't the riding association post a list of contributors, so voters can see where the $70,000 came from?

Care to comment on Minna's association with Mr. Cash-Filled-Envelope, Michel Beliveau?

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CIDA's position changed last fall after a lobbying campaign by Michel Beliveau, a senior Quebec Liberal connected to Transelec and to the Prime Minister. Mr. Beliveau was not registered as a lobbyist at the time.

In a Sept. 3, 2001, letter to Modibo Sidibe, Mali's Foreign Affairs Minister, Canadian diplomat Andre Cliche wrote that Canada is prepared to finance a settlement of the Transelec dispute -- using other Canadian foreign aid funds allocated for Mali -- but only after Transelec's cost-overrun claim is verified by SNC- Lavalin, the Montreal engineering firm that oversaw the project.

The about-face came after Mr. Beliveau, who was an employee of Transelec, arranged for Transelec executives to meet senior CIDA officials in Montreal last year, and after the office of the Minister responsible for CIDA intervened in the matter, the documents show.

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From the blog comments

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Michel Beliveau. Where have I heard that name before?

http://tinyurl.com/b67l6

"Also in his testimony, Corbeil alleged that he received other under-the-table donations.

He claimed to have once received an envelope stuffed with $5,000 in cash from his former boss, Michel Beliveau, Corbeil's predecessor as head of the Liberals' Quebec wing.

He alleged to have been given the money to help his party get a "leg up" in the hotly contested post-referendum election campaign.

The money was passed along to organizers in the Montreal riding of Bourassa -- the seat eventually won by Denis Coderre.

...

Corbeil also alleged that Beliveau gave him a second envelope of $4,000 for an east-end Montreal riding won by Liberal Yvonne Charbonneau.

...

Last week, Beliveau told the inquiry he gave Corbeil up to $100,000 earmarked for several ridings the Liberals were desperate to wrest from opposition parties. The money, he said at the time, came from Jacques Corriveau."

Oh my.

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Your Truly,

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Babbler #1299 - I think the rearrival of Babbler #10579 occurred faster than any of us thought.

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If #10579 is spending time online rather than stuffing envelopes or answering phones in the campaign office things must be going very badly for Maria Minna.

No doubt Paulie's performance tonight in the debate will have the folks in the office even more depressed tomorrow morning.

AS JIM I have this to say about MY riding which you NDPers have invaded from Toronto-Danforth: I invaded first!

Because I am on TV way too much, people might vote for me. People vote for party leaders! Therefore it sucks to be you. It might also suck to be me but I will never admit it.

Here is my suggestion:

I did not write my party's platform, my Shadow Cabinet did. There is lots of good stuff in there I don't agree with. Find out what it is and bring it up in debates. Ask me if I will run the country the way I ran my Council in 2005. Ask me about my part in it - after all I told the Canadian Press that "I lead the party. I don't manage the party." And that was a big fat lie!

Also make sure you know every detail of my legitimate biography. There are dozens of references there to check out from all sorts of people who know me.

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Originally posted by Robert MacBain:
During the 12 years that Maria Minna has been the Member of Parliament for Beaches-East York, she has never had a trust fund. All monies received have been deposited in the bank account of the Beaches-East York Federal Liberal Association. Those funds have been properly receipted and accounted for in accordance with the law.

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In the 2000 election, Maria Minna's second largest corporate donor was Canaccord Capital Corporation ($5,000). Canaccord made no other donations during the 2000 campaign.

During the 2004 Conservative leadership race, guess who was Stephen Harper's largest corporate donor? That's right, Canaccord Capital Corporation ($30,000)!