1. 'Everybody is very confused.' Michael Ignatieff preached transparency outside of caucus Wednesday but inside he was warning MPs not to go out on their own and post their expenses on their websites.
The Liberal Leader doesn't want his MPs to be acting as freelancers or mavericks. Rather, he cautioned them during their closed-door meeting to stick together on the contentious issue of revealing their expenses.
He wants MPs to use one standard form to post their expenses; he doesn't want different expenses posted by each MP because it would create the perception of inequities.
"Everybody is very confused about what is going on," a well-connected Liberal MP says.
Indeed, outside of caucus, Mr. Ignatieff told reporters he had written to House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken, who is the chair of the Board of Internal Economy, asking that Auditor-General Sheila Fraser be allowed to do an audit.
The expense issue is causing so much anxiety among politicians on Parliament Hill as Ms. Fraser - one of the most respected and trusted public servants - has been refused her request to conduct a performance audit of spending by MPs.
She was turned down two weeks ago by the secretive, all-party Board of Internal Economy, which oversees the Commons budget. But public pressure is building and it is certainly helping to change the minds of MPs.
Against this backdrop, however, some of the Liberal MPs - those who have been pushing for more transparency and have posted their expenses online - are being given the cold shoulder by some of the Liberal caucus senior players, according to an MP.
Independent thinkers, it seems, will not be tolerated.
Toronto Liberal MP Rob Oliphant posted his detailed expenses online yesterday. Two other MPs have also posted their expenses on their websites.
"Michael doesn't want anybody else to put up their budgets," says the source, who noted the hypocrisy in the fact that Liberals want to be able to manage taxpayers' money as a government but "don't want to disclose" the taxpayers' money they are managing now.
"It's amazing that we are fighting this," says the MP.
Government House Leader Jay Hill, meanwhile, announced Wednesday that his caucus had come up with a proposal, which could end the controversy, to take to the Board of Internal Economy.
2. The most expensive 72 hours in history. The $1-billion price tag (so far) to provide security for the three days of meetings of world leaders in Huntsville and Toronto next month is provoking a lot of outrage.
Michael Ignatieff's Liberals are charging that the government mismanaged the two summits by messing up the venues, the agenda and the guest list. That, they say, has forced up costs.
And this morning the Liberals issued a release tallying up the amount of public money spent on sprucing up Industry Minister Tony Clement's Muskoka riding for just the G8 - the one-day meeting before the G20 in Toronto.
"Practical concerns lost out to political calculations," the Liberals say. "Industry Minister Tony Clement used his ministerial influence in a questionable manner by funneling summit infrastructure funding from programs directly under his control to his home riding - even though it was an unsuitable location to host the G8/G20 summit."
So here, according to the Liberals, is the taxpayer money that went to Muskoka for the 24-hour meeting:
» $35.8-million on infrastructure funding, which the Grits say is the highest amount of all northern Ontario ridings.
» At $2.4-million, Muskoka received the second highest number of arena and community centre projects.
» And $25.9-million of Building Canada Fund community component funding was spent in the riding.
Mr. Clement, however, quickly countered the Liberal spin. "The infrastructure spending was used to prepare Canada for G8, and signed off not by me, but by the Infrastructure Minister," he told The Globe from Europe this morning.
"The G8 Summit is an incredible opportunity to showcase Canada on the international stage and it is important that the host location puts its best foot forward."
Another senior Harper official suggests the Liberals don't think the Muskoka region is "world class."
"It's also clear the Ignatieff Liberals don't think it's worth the time or money to host the world and lead the discussion on how to ensure global economic recovery. We do," the official official says.
"The Ignatieff Liberals should stop whining about the fact that Canada will be hosting world leaders. It's a historic moment for our country. In the midst of an economic crisis the world is looking to Canada for leadership and that's exactly what we're providing."
The NDP, meanwhile, has come up with a list of what $1-billion can buy these days in terms of government programs and initiatives - 159,492 Canadians could have received Employment Insurance for the average period before finding a job, 189,140 undergraduate students could have received full funding of their tuition this year and 167,568 Canadians could have their health costs covered.
You get the idea.