(Prime Time Crime exclusive Oct. 28, 2007)
A public deceived
By Leo Knight
It will be interesting to see what the Liberal party of Canada does with West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast MP Blair Wilson given the revelations in the Sunday Province. ('You are not fit for public office' – Sunday, October-28, 2007)
Blair Wilson really, really wanted to be an MP. It was a job he coveted. And fair enough I suppose, in that he seems to have been an abject failure at everything else he has done in his “professional” life. You know, like that “successful” accounting business that he had in North Vancouver. Well, not so much. It was an office he got for free in his father-in-law’s North Vancouver building. And no one I spoke to could provide any corroboration of “success” or “business” as it relates to that.
Mahone’s? Uh, no. He “borrowed" over $63,000 from a company he was involved in to try and keep it afloat. (See Liberal candidate's integrity called into question) Yes, he repaid the money. But that money seems to have come from his wife’s family trust account and, if a cancelled cheque I saw was the instrument which actually repaid that money – and that would seem to be the case given the like amounts and the time frame - then the signature of Bill Lougheed, Blair’s father-in-law, was forged. By whom? I don’t know. All I can say is the signature purported to be Bill Lougheed’s on a cheque for over $63,000 is not his. That much, to my non-expert eye, is clear. Who forged that signature would be a matter for the police should a complaint be filed.
There is a host of other failures too numerous to list here. Suffice to say that he is certainly not the business success he claims to be in his public profile. And, equally, there are a host of other issues not described in the Province story given the space confines. Items such as three cheques signed by Norma Lougheed, Wilson’s mother-in-law, payable to a landlord in Sechelt for Wilson’s campaign office rent and security deposit. Clearly something that should have been claimed as a campaign contribution. Did Wilson claim it? Hmmm, no, certainly not in the online filing I saw provided by Elections Canada.
Nor, as far as I could tell was the booze bill paid by Norma Lougheed for Blair Wilson to host his campaign parties at Wilson’s Steakhouse and Hollyburn Country Club. What a Prince this guy is. He creates the illusion that he is the big player, the successful entrepreneur and he has to get his mother-in-law to pay the bar bill for his tab and then doesn’t claim it as a campaign contribution.
Politics should be a calling to public service. My father, himself a lifelong Liberal party supporter, used to hold those in public office in high esteem. They were the leaders of the community and pillars of that community. Well, at least they were in his eyes. And, I suspect, in the eyes of a great many other Canadians. But, that was then. In the days before Shawinigate, the Billion dollar Boondoggle and a host of other scams perpetrated upon the taxpayer never mind the patronage and pork-barreling that has become hallmarks of politics today in this country.
Blair Wilson is likely not the worst MP when analyzed on an integrity basis in this Parliament. But surely, with this history, even the ethically-challenged Liberal Party of Canada will ‘understand that this guy is a liability and cut him loose. If Wilson had any integrity, he would resign his seat. But he won’t. It will be up to the party to force his hand. The question is, will they?
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