Same Old Liberals

As I said here despite the rhetoric of renewal and rebirthing of the Liberal Party with their Leadership race, somethings never change.

A long-time Liberal strategist is being accused of sneaking around Canada's political financing laws in his bid to get his party to promote climate change as its top priority to win the next election.

John Duffy, a former adviser to ex-prime minister Paul Martin, has set up a new website, climateliberal.ca, part of a non-profit organization to promote Liberal policies on climate change.

He argues his party has a duty to get the country moving to take action on global warming.

But NDP ethics critic Pat Martin has already fired off a letter of complaint to Canada's elections commissioner. Martin is demanding an investigation into the new outfit, which he suggested could fundraise for Liberal activities and boost the party's profile without being subject to existing restrictions on political financing.

''I call it sleazy and they're trying to pull a fast one on the election financing laws,'' Martin said in an interview. ''One of their (the Liberals) best and brightest operatives is thumbing his nose at the election financing laws by fundraising outside of the (Elections) Act.''

Duffy said his outfit does not fall under existing election laws since its goal is to push the Liberals to change, rather than promoting the party.

Oh, and just to round out his part-time environmental pedigree, John Duffy is also a full-time lobbyist for the nuclear industry. He proposes to fix one environmental problem by creating another.

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