Brison Affair Dejavu

Oh my gawd!

I just figured out why I kept getting this nagging feeling when I was blogging about Scott Brisons inappropirate email exchange on the Income Trust decision.

He and Martha Stewart both were in the investment business.

She contacted her broker and sold shares on insider information. She lied about it.

He contacted a broker friend and let him in on some inside information on Income Trusts. He lied about it.

She lied to the Feds, he lied to the Globe and Mail.

She knew better, he knew better.

She went to jail. He runs for the Liberal leadership to avoid jail.

She smiles he smiles.

Martha and Scott pees in the pod.

The reckless e-mails that Scott Brison sent

For a cabinet minister, there can be no such thing as idle speculation about future tax policy. Given his earlier investment career, Scott Brison had all the more reason to realize that it was highly indiscreet to predict happier times to a displeased investment banker on the eve of an anticipated tax change.

Mr. Brison compounded his sins this week by claiming that he could not recall his Nov. 22 e-mails about the fate of income trusts -- even though that banter, written when he was still public works minister, provoked a visit from the RCMP two months ago. Then, as more details of his imprudent messages emerged in The Globe and Mail, he protested his innocence. "At the time I was reluctant to discuss what I knew to be the subject of an RCMP investigation," he argued.

Loose lips on the Street came back to bite Brison

Mr. Brison denies he actually knew what was in store for trusts. Fair enough.

Intelligent people would take one look at that e-mail, and know what was coming. "Happier soon" could only mean a boost to the dividend tax credit, and no new levies on trusts. And that's exactly what the Liberals eventually unveiled.

This is the way the trust policy "leaked." The political types were giddy with good news. The Liberals had found a way to make everyone happy, and defuse an unexpected land mine. The impact such a policy might have on capital markets isn't exactly top of mind with politicians and their staff. They're focused on winning a country.

But news that the Street would be "happier soon" was transmitted loud and clear. When that information got into the hands of professional money managers, they knew exactly what to do. Hence the rally in dividend stocks and trusts in the hours before the Finance Minister finally cleared the air.

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