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published 05|19|05
| 'On the mend,' MacKay says Pleaded with Stronach to reconsider Says he was kept in dark about move SEAN GORDON OTTAWA BUREAU OTTAWA—Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay spent the early hours of Tuesday morning pleading with Belinda Stronach to reconsider her decision to bolt to the Liberals. MacKay, who had been dating Stronach for months, went to Ottawa's Chateau Laurier hotel shortly after midnight to speak to her about the decision, which she'd announced to him moments earlier. "It was a very long and involved (conversation). ... We did talk about it, she's made her decision, she's hopefully in a happy place. I don't have any malice or any ill feeling for her, just a sense of confusion and regret over what might have been," he said in an interview. Eyes red from sleeplessness, a crestfallen MacKay, 39, said he's still coming to grips with the stunning series of events that saw the billionaire heiress Stronach defect from the Conservatives to the Liberal cabinet on Tuesday. "I'm on the mend. It was a rough 48 hours, and something I wouldn't want to repeat, but you live and learn and all those trite truisms. Sometimes life knocks you down and you've got to get right back up," he said, adding "there's a deep personal sense of loss, and questions in my mind as to whether there was anything I could have done differently. I don't know if I'll ever be able to reconcile that." NATIONAL POST Latest News Drama on the hill Liberals made me an offer: Tory MP Anne Dawson and Allan Woods CanWest News Service OTTAWA - The federal Liberals are optimistic about winning tonight's budget vote although a dramatic scene in the House of Commons when a Liberal MP was rushed to hospital with chest pains left many fearing for their own political lives. Several hours after his collapse, Scarborough-Agincourt MP Jim Karygiannis emailed CanWest News from the hospital to say he had merely suffered heartburn and that "there is no way I will be kept away" from today's vote. A June election will be triggered if the Liberals and NDP fail to have enough MPs on hand to beat the Conservative-Bloc Quebecois team that has vowed to vote against at least part of the budget and topple the government. Although Tuesday's defection of former Conservative MP Belinda Stronach to the Liberals helps shore up the numbers for the minority government, Tory MP Gurmant Grewal yesterday accused a Cabinet Minister and Liberal aides of trying to lure him and his wife, also a Tory MP, with plum posts. Mr. Grewal produced a dramatic audiotape of the closed-door negotiations. The Prime Minister's chief of staff, Tim Murphy, and the senior Liberal Minister for British Columbia, Ujjal Dosanjh, said Mr. Grewal approached them, saying he and his wife, Nina Grewal, wanted to defect to the Liberal party in exchange for government appointments. But Mr. Grewal, a Tory MP since 1997, said he and his wife were offered a diplomatic posting and a future Senate seat respectively in exchange for their help propping up the government through a non-confidence vote today. "In exchange, I was given an understanding that I would be rewarded in some fashion," Mr. Grewal said. Mr. Murphy disputed any offer was made and said only that conversations were taking place. "He indicated he would cross the floor to support the government. I told him that it would be better to abstain on [today's] vote," Mr. Murphy said in a statement. Mr. Dosanjh said he was approached on Saturday by a mutual friend named Sudesh Kalia, who formally proposed the deal. On the tape, Mr. Murphy is heard insisting that whatever deal is struck, the truth must be told. "It's a bad idea to have any kind of commitment that involves an explicit trade,'' says Mr. Murphy on the tape. ''If anybody asks you was there a deal, you say no. You want that to be the truth. That's what I want: for the truth to be told.'' "I'm actually offended that Mr. Grewal would go to the lengths of approaching us, making totally inappropriate demands," despite being rebuffed several times, Mr. Dosanjh said. Mr. Dosanjh said Mr. Grewal pushed himself on Mr. Murphy, showing photographs of him throughout his career showing what great standing he had in the community, and for that reason he should "be rewarded right away." The Health Minister said he repeatedly told Mr. Grewal that he was asking for postings that could only be guaranteed by the Prime Minister. Mr. Murphy expressed concern about as many as eight possible opportunities for the opposition to defeat the government before the House rises at the end of June. |
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