OTTAWA -- Liberal MP Joe Volpe is calling on the Senate to amend the Federal Accountability Act to prohibit people under 18 from donating money to political parties after the House of Commons failed to impose such a restriction.
Mr. Volpe was criticized this spring when his campaign for the Liberal Party leadership accepted donations from 11-year-old twins. He returned $27,000 he had received from the twins and three other minors and said he had created a precedent that should become the law of the land.
Mr. Volpe sent a letter last week to the Opposition Leader in the Senate, Liberal Dan Hays, calling for the legislation to include tougher rules.
"In the course of the debate, we established in Canada a sense that the spirit of the law is that no one under the age of 18 would make a political contribution. I lived to that standard by giving the money back," Mr. Volpe said in an interview yesterday.
Championing an issue which reminds people of the worst offender(yourself) is the height of stupidity. Volpe should be running from this issue at lightning speed, instead he fuels the dialogue with his soapbox routine. Up until now Volpe's problems revolved around a discussion of ethics, but now it has become a question of political instincts. How anyone could conclude that these demands amount too sound political strategy is beyond me. The best defense is a good offense? Somebody put the hook on this character, every word he utters indirectly embarrasses a party desperate to shed its past.
2 comments:
i actually think volpe's correct on this issue. us liberals have allowed harpor to appear like he owns every accountability issue, but we need to start showing the public that this is not true. Harpor is no more interested in true accountability than he's interested in welfare mommas. He's a Howard-Hughes germophobe with a Richard Nixon complex... Sure Volpe is perhaps the worst person to point this out but at least he is doing that. It's hypocritical of Harpor for saying, look what the Liberals are doing and than backing off when one says that here's an obvious solution. Just wait until the greed-a-tories are caught with their fingers in the till.
burl
Substance wise, Volpe is correct on this issue. Appearance wise, he is the worst possible champion for reform. Akin to Emerson tabling legislation to abolish floor crossing.
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