NDP finally scores a nice little scandal

[barcode]

NDP finally scores a nice little scandal

What were ministers thinking when they took Jets tickets?
By: Dan Lett
05/12/2012 1:00 AM

Justice Minister Andrew Swan (wearing #11 jersey) enjoys a Jets home game in March. Ministers are drawing heat for accepting free tickets to the games.
There is no word adequate to describe the poor judgment shown by provincial cabinet ministers who wittingly accepted free tickets to see the Winnipeg Jets this past, glorious season.
Silly isn't enough. Stupid seems a bit coarse. This was a group of elected officials and officers of the Crown who suffered a collective loss of common sense that allowed them to accept free tickets to see the Winnipeg Jets play. In a city starved for NHL hockey, where perhaps only one in 10 real hockey fans got a chance to see a game live, this is unbelievably insulting. It would be like having Mother Theresa accept delivery of a pizza while telling Calcutta's poor and starving she had nothing to feed them.
Group brain-freeze? Collective cerebral cortex dysfunction? Mass neurological misfire? When you get right down to it, perhaps stupid is the right word after all.
To be clear, there are two ethical issues at play here.
First, there is the issue of elected officials, and senior government officials, accepting free tickets. In this case, the tickets came from both Crown corporations and non-governmental third parties. The rules for elected officials receiving sizable gifts are clear, and one can only imagine NDP cabinet ministers, visions of repatriated professional hockey players dancing in their heads, forgot a single ticket to a NHL game is, by its very face value, the very definition of a "sizable gift." It is actually impossible to explain what kind of brain fart occurred when the ministers accepted the tickets and failed to report the gift.
In cities where NHL hockey did not take a 15-year hiatus, politicians understand much better the perils of accepting free tickets. Federal Conservatives have confirmed Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as big a hockey fan as this country has, refuses to accept free tickets to a sporting event. When he does attend, he has paid for the tickets out of his own pocket, not out of a PMO expense account. This was the case, or so sources indicated, at the Vancouver winter Olympics, when Harper attended most of the important games played by Canada's men's hockey team. This included the gold-medal game, where the face value of tickets was hundreds of dollars.
Harper is smart to insist on paying for tickets to sporting events, the kind of smart Manitoba cabinet ministers now wish they had been. However, buying the tickets is not the only dilemma in this scenario. Access to tickets is also a commodity politicians in particular must be careful not to accept too often.
For example, in a city where hockey-mad fans snapped up Jets' season tickets in a matter of minutes, access to tickets is arguably the most important commodity in play. Many people would buy tickets if they could get access to them. It's a harsh reality of life in a NHL city the rich and famous get that access more often than non-connected people. That reality, however, should have served as a pretty obvious warning to politicians to steer clear of being seen to have too many tickets and thus too much access.
That having been said, how do we explain the horrendous lack of judgment by Premier Greg Selinger's cabinet ministers and the senior managers of provincial Crown corporations? Part of the problem here is, prior to returning to the NHL fold, politicians and senior bureaucrats would have had ready access to hockey tickets almost anytime they wanted them. Why? First, because the hockey in question was played in the American Hockey League, and there was not the same value placed on a pair of Manitoba Moose tickets. And second, because Crown corporations have been buying up tickets to support professional sport in this town for some time and those tickets had to go somewhere.
Although (perhaps conveniently) no one I could reach remembered what it was like in the old days of the original Winnipeg Jets, certainly since the Pan American Games were held here in 1999, government has been underwriting sport by buying up tickets. During those games, Crown-corporation purchases of event tickets helped make Winnipeg the most successful host city ever for that event. It mattered little the Crown purchases of tickets amounted to a second layer of taxpayer support for the games; many people in government and out of government accepted the free tickets and patted themselves on the back for being such good hosts.
The trend continued when the Manitoba Moose were the big and only show in town. It seems impossible right now, in the midst of the storm surrounding the current ticket scandal, to get a straight answer, but some tickets to those games were consumed, in one fashion or another, by government. And it's quite likely politicians and mandarins accepted free tickets, knowing at that time, the value did not make them a very significant gift. That was then, however, and this is now. The NDP has been relatively smart at avoiding the shameless scandals that, quite frankly, seem to be commonplace at other levels of government and in other provinces. No expense scandals, no five-star hotel upgrades or $1,000 business lunches. This event, for better or worse, ends that squeaky-clean record.
When it was clear the NHL was returning to Winnipeg, we all fell in love. In fact, it's not too much to say the Jets had us at hello. However, like all great love affairs, it pays to keep your wits about you. Otherwise, you end up very much playing the fool.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 12, 2012 A4



http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ ... ign=/local

[Edward Kennedy]

Free tickets are given to many people, the rich and famous and even me. What is the big deal if politicians are given the same courtesy?

It is not any different.

How about real scandals like party leaders living in subsidized housing while they and their wife are drawing huge wages all on the taxpayers' dime?

[styky]

The idea that this is a scandal is almost laughable. This is nothing more than media and political types taking temper tantrums because they didn't get a ticket. They are a hot commodity in this city and I've never seen so many cry babies because they didn't get one.

You want scandal then look at the bipole fiasco that's going to unnecessarily cost the taxpayer more than a billion dollars.

[RedDog]

They should be talking about the "Human Rights" museum and provincial budgets, not hockey tickets. Deflection and misdirection is now a routine part of the game.

The Jets will bring hundreds of millions into the economy annually. They did a study on the Oilers with respect to hotels, restaurants, bars, charter buses, cabs, concessions, parking, licensed merchandise, etc. The Oilers have over 700 season ticket holders who don't even live in Alberta. Presumably they structure business travel around the home schedule meaning buying gas, hotels, meals, lunch meetings with clients or colleagues, etc. They know of a few who fly their own planes in.

[richardson]

NDP finally scores a nice little scandal

What were ministers thinking when they took Jets tickets?
By: Dan Lett
05/12/2012 1:00 AM

Justice Minister Andrew Swan (wearing #11 jersey) enjoys a Jets home game in March. Ministers are drawing heat for accepting free tickets to the games.
There is no word adequate to describe the poor judgment shown by provincial cabinet ministers who wittingly accepted free tickets to see the Winnipeg Jets this past, glorious season.
... It would be like having Mother Theresa accept delivery of a pizza while telling Calcutta's poor and starving she had nothing to feed them.

I just got a little bit nauseated here.

...
To be clear, there are two ethical issues at play here.
First, there is the issue of elected officials, and senior government officials, accepting free tickets. ...

I'm still looking for the "second" ethical issue.

[Edward Kennedy]

NDP finally scores a nice little scandal

What were ministers thinking when they took Jets tickets?
By: Dan Lett
05/12/2012 1:00 AM

Justice Minister Andrew Swan (wearing #11 jersey) enjoys a Jets home game in March. Ministers are drawing heat for accepting free tickets to the games.
There is no word adequate to describe the poor judgment shown by provincial cabinet ministers who wittingly accepted free tickets to see the Winnipeg Jets this past, glorious season.
... It would be like having Mother Theresa accept delivery of a pizza while telling Calcutta's poor and starving she had nothing to feed them.

I just got a little bit nauseated here.

...
To be clear, there are two ethical issues at play here.
First, there is the issue of elected officials, and senior government officials, accepting free tickets. ...

I'm still looking for the "second" ethical issue.

...the second issue is deciding what hand to wipe their lefturd asses with, and not using toilet paper, trying to do so without getting dirty

[barcode]

Free tickets are given to many people, the rich and famous and even me. What is the big deal if politicians are given the same courtesy?

It is not any different.

How about real scandals like party leaders living in subsidized housing while they and their wife are drawing huge wages all on the taxpayers' dime?

Talk to the newspaper or the author. I agree with what you're saying...the real scandal is taxpayers have to pay for civil servant pensions, as well as their own. The private sector employees and employers are not only responsible for their own pensions, but part of their taxes go toward paying civil servant pensions, which is a joke. How much public sector money, meaning employees or employers in the public sector goes to funding private sector pensions, either that of employees or employers?

[Edward Kennedy]

Free tickets are given to many people, the rich and famous and even me. What is the big deal if politicians are given the same courtesy?

It is not any different.

How about real scandals like party leaders living in subsidized housing while they and their wife are drawing huge wages all on the taxpayers' dime?

Talk to the newspaper or the author. I agree with what you're saying...the real scandal is taxpayers have to pay for civil servant pensions, as well as their own. The private sector employees and employers are not only responsible for their own pensions, but part of their taxes go toward paying civil servant pensions, which is a joke. How much public sector money, meaning employees or employers in the public sector goes to funding private sector pensions, either that of employees or employers?

Yup

[free_life2]

Oh there is more to this little insider leftie dealings..... and in the "and dept" ask Marty Gold about the under the covers arrangements between Red River College administrators and it's secret illegal boards with the NDP government and the Winnipeg Free Press.


Saturday, May 26, 2012
Dave Chomiak, Manitoba Minister of Everything, says apologies are for sissies

Cabinet minister Dave Chomiak poked a thumb in Premier Greg Selinger's eye on Friday, and dared the Premier to do something about it.

The mainstream media reported on the thumb, but ignored the eye, leaving it up to us to do their job again.

"Six Months" Chomiak is one of 12 cabinet ministers who got caught taking free tickets to Winnipeg Jets hockey games from Crown corporations, Red River College and private companies that do business with the government.

But he's the only one to declare that he intends to pick and choose what sections of cabinet policy on accepting freebies he will follow and what he won't----because he can.

Earlier in the month, the Premier gave a televised mea culpa for the scandal that's enmeshed his government and announced that ministers who enjoyed Jets games on someone else's dime would pay back the cost of their tickets, and do the right thing and apologize.

Chomiak said 'blow it out your ear'. At least, we think he meant 'ear'.

Friday, he declared he had no intention of apologizing to anyone for anything. As Minister of Everything in Manitoba, he had an obligation to take free stuff, he said. He just has to, because that's the way business is done, and as Minister of Everything he has to do business, see?

He did, however, agree to pay to charity the sum of the free ticket to a Jets game that he got from Tundra Oil and Gas, the biggest oil company in Manitoba.

Selinger could only grin and bear it. That's because he can push around junior ministers like Erin Selby and make them toe the cabinet line, but he doesn't dare try to muscle Chomiak---because Chomiak knows where the bodies are buried.

Selinger could try to remind Chomiak that he's responsible for appointing Chomiak as Minister of Everything.

But then Chomiak would remind Selinger that the NDP is in government only because of him, Dave Chomiak.

That's the part that the mainstream media forgot to report on Friday.

Chomiak was front and centre of a huge election rebate fraud in 1999, the election that brought the current NDP to power in Manitoba. They managed to keep the fraud covered-up for ten years with the help of the head of Elections Manitoba. But in 2009 a whistle-blower, a former NDP campaign worker, spilled the beans.

You can read the dirty details in The Black Rod here:
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2009/06/ch ... ction.html
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2009/06/el ... ebate.html

In brief, during the 1999 election, when Dave Chomiak was co-chairman of the NDP campaign, the NDP engaged in a rebate fraud which saw the party get tens of thousands of dollars of government rebates for election expenses by claiming that unpaid union volunteers were actually paid election workers. They had been pulling this scam for years previously, it turned out.

When they got caught, by a forensic auditor years later, they first tried to get the auditor fired. Then they had him removed from the file while they made a backroom deal with the head of Elections Manitoba to pay back the rebate for the 1999 election, secretly, while he glossed over the fraud as a minor transgression to be reported in obscure terms only in an internal publication released days before the Christmas holiday weekend -- when nobody would notice.

We forget whether the deal was made before chief electoral officer Richard Balasko got a big raise, or after.

Greg Selinger was a candidate in that election, but wasn't aware of the fraud. However he was notified in 2003 that his campaign manager was implicated. His first instinct was to get a statement, in writing, from the NDP that cleared him of all blame. His second instinct was to help with the cover-up---until it fell apart six years later.

Chomiak can do whatever he wants because he pulls the puppet strings on Selinger. And when he says apologies are for sissies, Greg Selinger can only grin and do a happy dance.

Friday's appearance by Chomiak was a carefully choreographed event.

After Chomiak was exposed as one of the beneficiaries of Ticketgate, he mysteriously came down with a case of "apology flu" which kept him out of the Legislature and away from embarassing questions of the better part of a week.

He was treated by the NDP's top spin doctors who devised a cure.

Chomiak would appear at a non-news conference at which he would made a non-announcement about some non-event and answer a few pesky questions and that would be the end of it.

So on Friday Chomiak showed up to announce Mining Appreciation Week or something and to blow off questions about Ticketgate. Standing beside him was the CEO of Tundra Oil to give moral support and to help get Chomiak off the scandal hook.

Big mistake.

Chomiak couldn't shed his insufferable sense of entitlement. He wouldn't apologize, he sniffed, because as Minister of Everything he was only doing his job by accepting free gifts from business.

Yeah, said Tundra president Dan MacLean. The giving and taking of freebies is part of doing business as everyone knows, he said. For example, he took the oil minister of Congo to a baseball game.

We're not sure how comparing Manitoba with Congo was a compliment.

And, he said, as head of the biggest oil company of Manitoba, this was the only way to get "facetime" with the Energy Minister.

Say what? The Energy Minister won't meet face-to-face with the biggest oil company in the province without some gift changing hands? That's interesting.

A free ticket to the Jets game was no different than taking the minister to dinners or shows, Maclean said, digging his foot deeper into this mouth.

No, maybe it's not. Which is why we really should know all about which dinners our government ministers go to and with whom. At present they only need to report any gift over $250, but their share of dinner will rarely meet that threshhold, and yet, as Dan Maclean says, lots of business, or dare we say lobbying, is conducted at free dinners.

But the real bombshell was reported by CBC News which said that Dave Chomiak may have been a guest of Tundra Oil at the Jets game, but he sat in the private box of Richardson & Sons, the owners of Tundra Oil.

In other words, he was a guest of the richest man in Manitoba.

And, somehow, Chomiak didn't think that a ticket to sit in the private box of the richest man in the province was worth $250 and needed to be reported.

So he waited until May 8 to fill out his disclosure forms just as Ticketgate blew wide open.

So what picture are we left with?

* Dave Chomiak, Minister of Everything including Energy, is so incompetent he can't make the time to meet with the head of the biggest oil company in Manitoba

* Dave Chomiak, the Minister of Everything, believes accepting gifts and gratuities is normal business practice and he, as a servant of the public, must do business

* Dave Chomiak, cabinet minister, won't apologize for taking freebies, although the Premier said cabinet ministers who took free Jets tickets would apologize

* Dave Chomiak can blackmail the Premier into letting him do whatever he wants.

Hey, maybe Manitoba is more like the Democratic Republic of the Congo that we thought.

Labels: Balasko, chomiak, Erin Selby, Jets, MSM, NDP, Red River College, Selinger

posted by The Black Rod | 7:00 PM links to this post
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Erin Selby coverup. See what free Jets tickets can buy you.

Erin Selby used to pride herself for being an honest journalist. That was before drinking the NDP kool-aid.

These days, as a cabinet minister in Greg Selinger's government, she finds herself sinking deeper and deeper into the quicksand of unethical influence peddling, secret backroom lobbying and slippery moral judgement greased by cheap excuses.

Her most recent performance was in front of the Legislature's Estimates committee. She tried to do a dance of seven veils when questioned about the enticement of a free ticket to a Winnipeg Jets game from Red River College. She came up several veils short.

She admitted she found the offer of a Jets ticket from Red River President Stephanie Forsyth irresistible.

"Yes, I was asked by the president of Red River College if I would go to a Jets game with her, to which I accepted," she said.

But it was business, she insisted. A chore that comes with being the Minister of Advanced Education.

"One of the things that I think is important is for me as minister to meet regularly with students, which I do... and I meet regularly and have regular conversations with the presidents of all our institutions."

She then spun a story of magnificent ignorance.

She didn't know who else attended that day on Red River College season tickets. She met a woman, but she drew a blank at who it was. She didn't even hazard a guess at who sat in the fourth seat that the College owns.

"There was myself, Stephanie Forsyth, and another woman whose name I don't remember now, who Stephanie introduced me to. But I'm afraid the member would have ask the president of Red River College who she's attended Jets games with, because it's not something that the ministers office keeps tracks of."

So we don't know if that other woman was Debbie Scarborough, Forsyth's lesbian live-in. And we can be certain from Selby's answers that the fourth ticket did not go to her CBC cameraman hubby, who was likely home with the triplets watching the game on TV.

Unless she was misleading the Legislature, of course.

And Selby isn't curious why cash-strapped Red River College spent $20,000 on four season tickets to the Jets which they've been sprinkling around to government officials. Beside herself, of course, RRC tickets have been enjoyed by Finance Minister Stan Struthers, Justice Minister Andrew Swan, and Paul Vogt, the Cabinet secretary in the Manitoba government who is head of the civil service and responsible for the Premier's department.

For a glimpse of the view the Red River tickets get you, see here:

http://tgcts.com/uncategorized/sunday-m ... dp-cabinet

And for a glimpse of what Red River College is buying for their Jets tickets, you can read the transcript of the Estimates committee meeting.

Start with where Opposition member Ron Schuler asks Selby,"When she went to the Jets game with the president of Red River community college, did she discuss any of the ethics complaints that had come forward?"

Selby did everything she could think of to avoid answering the question short of tipping the table and bolting for the Exit door.

She ranted about Tory education policy twenty years ago; she praised herself for raising the number of aboriginal students in university and college -- from 9 percent to 9.8 percent -- she insisted she talks about graduation rates with everyone she's with "whether we're at a Jets game or monster trucking".

The only thing she didn't address was ethics complaints.

Because she knew exactly what Schuler was talking about.

You see, a year-and-a-half ago, Stephanie Forsyth gave the order to kill a talk show on radio station Kick-FM because it offended Margo Goodhand, editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, by constantly pointing out the newspaper's biases and general bad reporting. The radio station is allegedly an arms-length non-profit operation, but in reality is completely controlled by Red River College through interlocking management reporting to Forsyth.

Avid listeners to the talk show contacted the station and Red River College for an explanation for the cancellation. They were given a number of reasons, until emails surfaced through Freedom-of-Information requests. They documented Forsyth's and Goodhand's behind-the-scenes roles and revealed the truth. The listeners at that point knew that Red River College officials had lied to them, and were continuing to lie to protect Forsyth.

A little research showed that Red River College has a code of ethical conduct to which officials must adhere. So several listeners filed official complaints about breaches of this ethical code, not least of which was lying to members of the public.

Red River College simply ignored the complaints. The listeners then raised the matter with Erin Selby, a former journalist (ha ha) , and the Minister of Advanced Education.

She replied to some of them that their concerns, in her view, were "serious." But she advised them to take it up with Red River College, not her.

Last week, months and many Jets games later, Red River has done nothing with the ethics complaints. And Erin Selby has done no follow-up whatsoever to what she said were "serious" complaints.

See what a few free nearly unobtainable tickets to the most prized event in Winnipeg can buy you?

Silence. Complicity. A blind eye.

What do you expect a minister with her own ethical blind spot to do about ethics complaints against the person slipping her a free ticket (or was that two)?

Are they going to take their complaints about breaches of the provincial Corporations Act to the Justice Minister? Ha ha.

Or their concerns about financial mismanagement by Red River to the Finance Minister? Ha ha ha.

Or to the Premier, who sets the moral tone of the government and pours the Kool-aid ?

Labels: Andrew Swan, conflict of interest, Erin Selby, influence peddling, Jets, Paul Vogt, Red River College, Selinger, Struthers

posted by The Black Rod | 8:37 PM links to this post
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The lazy press lets Selinger and Struthers get away with ticketgate cover-up.

Exactly one week ago, Finance Minister Stan Struthers was feeling pretty smug.

The Opposition thought they had some traction with a scandal involving free tickets to Winnipeg Jets hockey games that the Liquor Control Commission had given to a few cabinet ministers.

Struthers was confident the government had squashed the scandal. They had contained the damage to three cabinet ministers, announced that the ticket takers had paid back the cost of their freebies and that the NDP had a policy in the works to prevent MLAs from taking free tickets to any sports events in the future.

During Question Period in the Legislature, Struthers spoke with unmitigated scorn at Opposition members who asked questions about the ticket scandal.

Mr. Struthers: Well, again, Mr. Speaker, I know it must be frustrating for members opposite when the facts don't back up the narrative that they're trying to get across. I understand that frustration, but the facts of the matter are that nobody from this side of the government benefitted through Jets tickets at the expense of the Manitoba taxpayer. That's clear; that's obvious.

NDP Premier Greg Selinger, the dirtiest politician in the province, even tried to turn the scandal back on the Opposition:

"And what we've done, I–perhaps the member missed it, but we've said, no more tickets to Cabinet members, caucus members, or senior officials in our government, and we're still waiting for the policy from the members opposite on how it applies to his caucus."

Struthers was cocky when he attended a committee meeting on Estimates later in the day. He was armed with his party's talking points and ready to rumble. He was so ready, in fact, he sprang to the attack without bothering to listen to the questions asked him.

Mrs. Heather Stefanson (Tuxedo): And I gather the minister was out with the media and discussing some issues with the media, so was maybe a little delayed coming here today. No problem, but I do have a question for the minister.

I wonder if he could indicate if he went to any Jets games at all this year.
Hon. Stan Struthers (Minister of Finance): I don't mind the question. It gives me an opportunity to go back in time and remind people of how the Jets got here in the first place and who supported the building of the arena which is part of the equation for the Jets to make their triumphant return back to Winnipeg, and who participated in locking their arms around the Eaton's building to protest a progressive move forward.

But I won't do that, Mr. Chair.

Very directly, I went to three games. I went to three games because I'm a, I guess, a small player in a consortium of season ticket holders. So I managed to get drawn for three games.

Struthers launched into a long, detailed story about taking his son to two of the games, how he cheered for the Jets against his "former team, the Leafs" and how his son high-fived "with everybody in our section" when the Jets won against the Florida Panthers. Awwww.

It would have been touching if it wasn't for the fact that Struthers was lying.

He was using his son as a shield to minimize the scandal. It was a diversionary tactic to further a cover-up of how widespread the giving and taking of free Jets tickets actually was.

Unfortunately for him, the cover-up fell apart only one day later.

CBC News spilled the beans.

"In an email to The Canadian Press, Red River College said it also provided tickets to Finance Minister Stan Struthers and Justice Minister Andrew Swan for a game last December 23rd."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ ... ckets.html

Oops.

On Monday, Struthers was eating humble pie.

He had "inadvertently" misled the Legislative committee, he admitted. No, really, inadvertently, he said. He actually attended SIX Jets games, but only paid for three. He had forgotten "inadvertently" to tell the committee he got free tickets for Jets games from Red River College, the Manitoba Homebuilders Association, and an acquaintance he wouldn't name.

Slipped his mind, he said. Can't explain how he forgot. He meant to tell 'em.

Nobody is buying his act.

Struthers wasn't talking about the free tickets he got, not as long as the cover-up was holding. And neither was somebody else. His boss, Greg Selinger.

Anybody who knows anything about politics, knows that the first thing every NDP MLA did the day the scandal broke was divulge what Jets games they attended and how they got their tickets. Greg Selinger knew that Struthers was lying to the Legislative committee two days later, but he said nothing. He was part of the cover-up.

What's more shameful is that the lazy press in Winnipeg never asked Selinger what he knew and when he knew it.

We're not promoting an adversarial press. The Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa prides itself in being the true opposition to the Harper government. The day they engaged in a public tiff with Stephen Harper over how questions are asked at news conferences, they became adversaries with a personal bias, and thereby lost all credibility with the public for being fair and balanced reporters of news.

That's not the case in Winnipeg for the most part. Legislature reporters here just don't ask relevant questions. It's too much bother.

Even worse, they're so easy to spin. Just this week both CJOB and CBC regurgitated the NDP's attack on the Opposition over the free-tickets scandal by asking if Opposition MLAs took freebie tickets themselves.

Here's the question they should have asked. So what if they did? You can't bribe somebody who is in no position to give you favours. You can only buy influence with somebody who has influence, who is in government.

Neither CBC nor CJOB has asked Selinger when he knew that the number of MLA's involved was not 3 but 13.

We're betting he knew from Day One and said nothing.

Is Energy Minister David Chomiak really sick, or is he hiding out from the Legislature so that nobody can ask him whether he will apologize for taking free Jets tickets as Selinger said he would? Is he too sick to answer the phone at home? That's news in itself.

Bruce Owen writes in the Winnipeg Free Press that Selinger has his own season ticket to Jets games. Really? It's funny that he never once mentioned that during the last election campaign or any time since.

Selinger the social worker is a big hockey fan? Isn't that a good story for any sports reporter? It's a story we have yet to see.

And WHEN did Selinger buy his ticket?

The first crack at season tickets went to Manitoba Moose season ticket holders, mini-pack holders and corporate advertising partners. Was Selinger a Moose season ticket holder? Or a mini-pack holder? He certainly wasn't an advertising partner.

Sales to the public went on sale Saturday June 4 and were sold out in just 17 minutes. Did Greg Selinger sit at home at his computer and snap up one season ticket during those 17 minutes. That's a hell of a story itself. We haven't read that one either.

Does Selinger sit alone at the games, or does he sit with somebody. Who? Somebody who could be considered a lobbyist? Maybe it's somebody who is a registered lobbyist. That would be an interesting story, too, if the press could shake themselves awake and start asking questions.

Imagine if Greg Selinger "inadvertently" misled the press about that season ticket.
Would that make paragraph 15 of a Bruce Owen story the way Struthers' fibbing did last Saturday?

Labels: CBC, CJOB, Free Press, Jets, MSM, Selinger, Struthers

posted by The Black Rod | 8:21 AM links to this post
Monday, May 14, 2012
Premier Greg Selinger isn't talking about his free Jets ticket


When Premier Greg Selinger released a list of 13 NDP MLA's who got free tickets to Winnipeg Jets games he forgot one name -- his own.

On Oct. 9, 2011, the Winnipeg Jets played their home opener and Greg Selinger was among the invited guests, along with former NDP Premier Gary Doer and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Blogger Allison Pattison, a Creative Communications student at Red River College, wrote about Selinger's attendance at the game.

http://passittopatty.blogspot.com/2011/ ... -jets.html.

"The MTS Centre was packed to the roof. Literally. I would say about 80% of the fans in there were in white, which was a good thing because that means when the Jets request a white-out, fans will know what to do."
"The game started off with a ceremonial puck drop; Rick Rypien's mom had the honour."
"Along with Rypien's mom in attendance were a few other known names. Our Prime Minister Stephen Harper was there. He sat behind the Jets bench at ice-level. Pretty good seats if you ask me."
"Gary Bettman, NHL's Commissioner was also there, as well as Premier Greg Selinger and Canada's Ambassador to the United States Gary Doer."
"Selinger had a personalized Jets jersey with his last name on the back for a custom namebar and sported it with pride throughout the game."

The P.M. had four seats to the game. And his office has made it crystal clear that whenever he goes to a sports event he pays for his seats personally. Not the PMO, not the Conservative Party.

"The prime minister always pays for his own tickets out of his pocket," Carl Vallee, press secretary for the Prime Minister's Office, said in an email statement to the Winnipeg Free Press last month. "He does the same for family and guests that go with him."

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ ... 34675.html
From the same story:

"Provincial cabinet spokesman Matt Williamson said in an email no Manitoba premier has claimed a sport ticket as a business expense in the last 30 years. He said Premier Greg Selinger has never expensed a ticket to a sporting event, and a provincial policy says any claims must be for expenses incurred on government business."

Well, attending a hockey game is certainly not government business. So filing for the cost of a ticket was never in the cards. However some newspaper accounts have said that Selinger, like Stephen Harper, pays for all the sports tickets he gets.
But Selinger hasn't filed any disclosure that he received a ticket to the first Jets game. Nor has he revealed publicly that he paid his own way, although he now says that his new policy on taking bribes includes refusing all offers of free tickets.

And assuming Selinger did pay out of pocket for his Oct. 9 Jets ticket and thereby it wasn't "free"; given the confusion surrounding who got what tickets from whom, when, and why nobody declared it and when they supposedly repaid their benefactors, we think he needs to show the cancelled cheque -- if one exists.
And did he pay Jets co-owner Mark Chipman before going to the game? If not, he got a free ticket and paid it back later.

And his name goes on the naughty list.

There are still many unanswered questions about the Jets Ticket Scandal (click here for part 1 of our analysis). Topping the list is the four tickets from the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission that passed through Jim Rondeau's office into the hands of Gord Mackintosh.

They were sent by the MLCC to "the minister's (Rondeau) office" according to a freedom-of-information response sent by the liquor commission to the Manitoba Taxpayers Federation. But they were used by Mackintosh at the Jets game the same day.

Did Mackintosh go trolling for tickets for that game? Did Rondeau contact the MLCC and ask for tickets? Or did the MLCC coincidentally have four tickets lying around and someone decided to ask the minister in charge of the Liquor Commission if he knew of anyone who was interested in taking in a Jets game?

Because if the minister in charge of the MLCC picked up the phone and called somebody at the Liquor Commission and, ahem, asked politely if there happened to be four tickets floating around, then we're in a whole new ballgame of political pressure for personal favours.

The same question applies to Justice Minister Andrew Swan who managed to get his hands on eight free tickets to the Jets.
Eight.
Is he so charming that Red River College, Manitoba Public Insurance, the home builders association and Canada Inns were lining up outside his office to give him free hockey tickets?

Or was he calling them to see if, ahem, there were any free tickets floating around?

Swan has said he belongs to a consortium that purchased some season tickets. So sometimes he went to games where he paid for his ticket just like the average Joe. A reader of The Black Rod saw him at a game where the reader's friend approached Swan, who he knew, and discovered he was sitting with Health Minister Theresa Oswald. We're giving him the benefit of the doubt and saying it was on a day when Swan had his consortium tickets and he decided to treat a colleague to a game.

But on the question of how he snagged eight tickets, we think he owes the public answers he hasn't given.

Selinger said Friday he expects the 13 NDP MLAs to apologize to the public for taking free tickets. At least one of them, Hydro Minister Dave Chomiak, said (to Global News) that he's not sorry and he has nothing to apologize for.

Maybe at least he can tell us who the blonde was that he went to the game with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGIJphQQUk

Labels: Andrew Swan, boondoggle, chomiak, Gary Doer, Global, Jets, Mark Chipman, MPI, Red River College, Selinger, theresa oswald

posted by The Black Rod | 1:12 AM links to this post
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Jets Ticket Scandal: It started with an innocent question back in March

It started March 21st.
It was near the end of a long, boring meeting of a committee of the Legislature at which the Opposition gets to ask questions about crown corporations like the Liquor Control Commission.

Out of the blue, Ron Schuler (P.C. St. Paul) asked," Is the MLCC a season ticket holder of the Winnipeg Jets?"

The resulting discussion was hardly momentous.

Roman Zubach, acting president of the liquor commission, answered,"We do hold 10 season tickets..."

Schuler asked Jim Rondeau, minister responsible for the Liquor Control Act, "Has the minister been to any Winnipeg Jets games using MLCC Jets tickets?"

"No," said Rondeau.

"Could we have a list who has access to those tickets?" asked Schuler.

Rondeau squirmed a bit about providing names of citizens who won tickets in contests but "(i)f it’s talking about board members or MLAs or Cabinet ministers, absolutely. I have no difficulty whatsoever providing that to you." Schuler was satisfied.

That was it.

Except that the MLCC's 10 tickets were actually ten season tickets which translated into 440 actual tickets to games. Was the liquor commission prez being coy about how many prized Jets tickets he had at his disposal? Maybe. But Rondeau seemed honest with his offer to cough up the names of politicians and board members who had access to those tickets.

Skip ahead six and a half weeks. Monday, May 7, 2012.
Ron Schuler stands in the Legislature and asks Rondeau, where's that list you promised?

Rondeau is a lot less conciliatory than he was in March.

Well, replies Rondeau, its a lot of work and the liquor commission is extremely busy combining with the Lotteries Commission as announced in the budget speech, and its going to take more time.

He was stalling, as we can now see.

There had been a flurry of activity behind the scenes. NDP cabinet ministers had been tipped off that questions were being asked about Jets tickets. They, ahem, suddenly realized how it would look if word got out that they had received free tickets to Jets games from public utilities, crown corporations and businesses they deal with. There was a rush to, ahem, "pay" for the tickets.'

* In early April, Gord Mackintosh, Minister of Conservation and former Minister of Justice, coughed up the cost of four Jets tickets he received from the MLCC for a game on Feb 7th.

* Stan Struthers, Minister of Finance, remembered he had a cheque somewhere that he had been meaning to mail for the two Jets tickets he got, one from Red River College and the other from the Manitoba Homebuilders Association, both of which thought he was working too hard and he needed a break with some homegrown recreation.

* Erin Selby, the Minister of Higher Education, finally got around on May 4 to paying for a Jets ticket she received from Red River College -- on October 24th.

Colin Craig, of the Manitoba Taxpayers Federation, was puzzled by Rondeau's answer. Puzzled because he was holding in his hands a list of how the MLCC distributed its Jets tickets. He had asked for the information under the province's freedom-of-information laws on March 1st.

Tuesday, May 8th, 9 AM.:
“We received the details five weeks ago from the MLCC.” Craig said in a news release he issued that exposed the stall tactic.

"Of the 440 Jets tickets received by the MLCC, a March 30 freedom of information response shows four of them went to Minister Rondeau’s office, 66 went to the Board, 188 went to head office staff, 108 to store managers, 62 to MLCC Executives, eight to the MLCC Social Club and just four to charity."

So when Rondeau told the committee back in March that he hadn't gone to any Jets games courtesy of the Liquor Commission he was sorta kinda telling the truth. He had received four tickets from the MLCC (at his request?) on Feb. 7, but had given them to his pal and colleague Gord Mackintosh. What a guy.

The Taxpayers Federation blew the stall tactic out of the water.

The Legislature. 1.30 PM, Tuesday, May 8.

The NDP admitted that three cabinet ministers received tickets to Jets games. The new gambit was to declare that they had all paid for their tickets so there was no scandal.

"The three Cabinet ministers that did receive tickets have repaid those tickets, and that has put the matter to rest from their perspective as they paid for them out of their own pocket." declared Premier Greg Selinger.

The NDP named the three hockey-loving members of cabinet as Justice Minister Andrew Swan, Conservation Minister Gord Mackintosh and Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton.

Overlooked by most commentators was Struthers' confession that he couldn't say whether all three received their tickets through Crown agencies or otherwise.

Again, Struthers was being disingenuous. He would have known that Mackintosh got his tickets from the MLCC after being laundered through Jim Rondeau. He would have known that Andrew Swan had been the recipient of EIGHT Jets tickets even if he didn't know who Swan's benefactors were (Manitoba Public Insurance, Red River College, the Homebuilders Association and Canad Inns). And Ashton's two tickets came courtesy of the homebuilders and the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation.

The NDP tried to seize control of the scandal by claiming they had a policy to prevent any ministers from getting free tickets to Jets games.

"...the members opposite also need to know that with respect to Jets tickets we've brought out a very clear directive that no minister or senior official should receive the benefit of free tickets from a Crown corporation or any private business." said Selinger.

The Opposition called his bluff.

Mr. Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach): "I wonder if the Minister of Finance (Mr. Struthers) can table for the House this great policy he's been talking about. Can he table for the House so we know what this policy actually is?"

Uhhhh, said Stan Struthers. They were working on that.

Hon. Stan Struthers (Minister charged with the administration of The Crown Corporations Public Review and Accountability Act): " Mr. Speaker, work on this policy started a number of weeks ago, well ahead of anybody in the opposition even being interested in this whole topic. "

He continued,"... we've–I've been very clear that this government is coming forward with a policy that will be fair, that will address the accessibility issues when it comes to Jets tickets."

"I also was very clear, Mr. Speaker, that any minister in this government who received tickets, Jets tickets, paid for those Jets tickets out of their own money."

"So, Mr. Speaker, we will–we are endeavouring to get the information–all of the information to all of the questions that the members opposite are interested in. We've been up front in saying we would follow up with that, and that's under way."

"Mr. Speaker, my hope is that members opposite would take this as seriously as we are."

How seriously were they taking it?

Well the next morning, Wednesday May 9th, Premier Selinger went on CJOB to declare he was taking it seriously. He had put a policy in place, he said. The Opposition didn't have a policy, but he did. So there. That seriously.

In the Legislature, Struthers returned to the Party Line.

Hon. Stan Struthers (Minister charged with the administration of The Crown Corporations Public Review and Accountability Act):. "The–as we reported yesterday, as has been made very clear, no Cabinet minister benefited on behalf of the Manitoba taxpayers, absolutely, end of story on that."

It wasn't the end of the story. By nightfall it had been revealed that EIGHT cabinet ministers had accepted free tickets to Jets games.

But, but, but...they paid the money back, pleaded Selinger. Nobody was listening.
By question period Thursday, May 10, the NDP was reduced to flailing around for a response to the scandal that was growing larger by the day.

They tried going on the offence. They accused the Opposition of being anti-Jets.

Hon. Stan Struthers (Minister charged with the administration of The Crown Corporations Public Review and Accountability Act): "I suppose the other way to look at this–that if we had followed the advice of members opposite, the Jets wouldn’t have come home in the first place and there wouldn’t be this problem, I guess, Mr. Speaker. "

It was pathetic.

It only sounded more pathetic the next day.
4PM Friday, May 11
A contrite, apologetic Greg Selinger called a news conference as late in the day as he dared.

The truth, he said, was that there were THIRTEEN NDP MLA's who enjoyed Jets hockey with free tickets given them by public corporations, private companies, lobby groups, and even a retirement home.

THIRTEEN, not three as they said on Tuesday. THIRTEEN, not eight as they admitted to on Thursday.

They had or would all pay back the price of those tickets. And they wouldn't accept any other tickets. And they would apologize to the public (still waiting...ed). Honest, he said. Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.

Do you think that's the end of the story?

http://blackrod.blogspot.ca/

[Madrod]

I suggest the second issue is not WHAT hand to use to wipe their lefturd butts but WHOSE hand.
Yes,comrade Jack and his widow should never be forgiven or forgotten for living in subsidized housing.Typical NDP scum where some pigs are more equal than other pigs.

[Edward Kennedy]

lefturds = liars, thieves, pedo enablers, etc

[O_Canada_87]

Free tickets are given to many people, the rich and famous and even me. What is the big deal if politicians are given the same courtesy?

It is not any different.

How about real scandals like party leaders living in subsidized housing while they and their wife are drawing huge wages all on the taxpayers' dime?

I agree that the free tickets thing isn't THAT big of a deal. Sure, they shouldn't have done it, BUT it is nowhere NEAR as awful as the scandals that plague both the Liberals and the Conservatives. They shouldn't be proud of doing it, but it certainly does not deserve the language and disbelief that the author of this thread is expressing. Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill for partisan reasons (as seems to be happening here).

As for the lie that "Jack Layton and Olivia Chow lived in subsidized housing while drawing huge wages all on the taxpayer's dime" is a complete crock and isn't true. They lived in co-op housing (as do I). The way that works is that those who make a certain amount of money (a lot of it) live in their house and pay a higher-than-market-value for it.

They do this in order to subsidize their less-fortunate low-income neighbours who live in the co-op. So, Jack Layton and Olivia Chow were not only NOT "fraudulently living in subsidized housing", they were, in fact, purposely inconveniencing themselves and OVER-paying for their home in order to help the less-fortunate.

Now, as a member of the general public, I've known about this for a long time (ever since the false accusation was made in the first place), so I find it hard to believe that you wouldn't know this too. All you had to do was a little internet search to discover the truth.

All I know is that, with the Tories, I am NOT getting what I voted for. They are proving themselves to be no different than the scandal-plagued Liberals. I think, after getting a taste of each of the old ones, I am actually ready to try the NDP.

[O_Canada_87]

Free tickets are given to many people, the rich and famous and even me. What is the big deal if politicians are given the same courtesy?

It is not any different.

How about real scandals like party leaders living in subsidized housing while they and their wife are drawing huge wages all on the taxpayers' dime?

I agree that the free tickets thing isn't THAT big of a deal. Sure, they shouldn't have done it, BUT it is nowhere NEAR as awful as the scandals that plague both the Liberals and the Conservatives. They shouldn't be proud of doing it, but it certainly does not deserve the language and disbelief that the author of this thread is expressing. Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill for partisan reasons (as seems to be happening here).

As for the lie that "Jack Layton and Olivia Chow lived in subsidized housing while drawing huge wages all on the taxpayer's dime" is a complete crock and isn't true. They lived in co-op housing (as do I). The way that works is that those who make a certain amount of money (a lot of it) live in their house and pay a higher-than-market-value for it.

They do this in order to subsidize their less-fortunate low-income neighbours who live in the co-op. So, Jack Layton and Olivia Chow were not only NOT "fraudulently living in subsidized housing", they were, in fact, purposely inconveniencing themselves and OVER-paying for their home in order to help the less-fortunate.

Now, as a member of the general public, I've known about this for a long time (ever since the false accusation was made in the first place), so I find it hard to believe that you wouldn't know this too. All you had to do was a little internet search to discover the truth.

All I know is that, with the Tories, I am NOT getting what I voted for. They are proving themselves to be no different than the scandal-plagued Liberals. I think, after getting a taste of each of the old ones, I am actually ready to try the NDP.

[Edward Kennedy]

Free tickets are given to many people, the rich and famous and even me. What is the big deal if politicians are given the same courtesy?

It is not any different.

How about real scandals like party leaders living in subsidized housing while they and their wife are drawing huge wages all on the taxpayers' dime?

I agree that the free tickets thing isn't THAT big of a deal. Sure, they shouldn't have done it, BUT it is nowhere NEAR as awful as the scandals that plague both the Liberals and the Conservatives. They shouldn't be proud of doing it, but it certainly does not deserve the language and disbelief that the author of this thread is expressing. Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill for partisan reasons (as seems to be happening here).

As for the lie that "Jack Layton and Olivia Chow lived in subsidized housing while drawing huge wages all on the taxpayer's dime" is a complete crock and isn't true. They lived in co-op housing (as do I). The way that works is that those who make a certain amount of money (a lot of it) live in their house and pay a higher-than-market-value for it.

They do this in order to subsidize their less-fortunate low-income neighbours who live in the co-op. So, Jack Layton and Olivia Chow were not only NOT "fraudulently living in subsidized housing", they were, in fact, purposely inconveniencing themselves and OVER-paying for their home in order to help the less-fortunate.

Now, as a member of the general public, I've known about this for a long time (ever since the false accusation was made in the first place), so I find it hard to believe that you wouldn't know this too. All you had to do was a little internet search to discover the truth.

All I know is that, with the Tories, I am NOT getting what I voted for. They are proving themselves to be no different than the scandal-plagued Liberals. I think, after getting a taste of each of the old ones, I am actually ready to try the NDP.

Big mistake unless you want a windmill on every acre of land, skyrocketting taxes, refugees flooding the nation, perversions pushed more than they are in public schools, hiring of more bureaucrats, etc etc etc

[wildernessvoice]

Free tickets are given to many people, the rich and famous and even me. What is the big deal if politicians are given the same courtesy?

It is not any different.

How about real scandals like party leaders living in subsidized housing while they and their wife are drawing huge wages all on the taxpayers' dime?

...or NDP er's shoplifting eye wash?
...or NDP er's Stealing diamond rings for their gay boyfriends?