Politics

The QP Clip: Sheila who?

The exchange you can’t miss from this afternoon’s Question Period
Auditor General Sheila Fraser speaks during a news conference after tabling the special report on the public sector integrity commissioner of Canada in Ottawa, Thursday December 9, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Oh, the power of Canada’s most famous auditor. Repeatedly, the NDP baited Pierre Poilievre. They goaded. They poked and prodded. They wanted the democratic reform minister to say something, anything, negative about Sheila Fraser, who yesterday dismissed the Fair Elections Act as “an attack on our democracy.” The Official Opposition repeated, again and again, that Conservatives of the good old days would name-check Fraser at any opportunity—65 times, by their count. Fraser was their best friend as she tore a hole through Liberal electoral fortunes. What now, as she condemns their bill?

Poilievre wouldn’t bite. He’d only respond that he’s aware of Elections Canada’s—not Fraser’s—problems with C-23, and that he “simply disagreed” with their substance. He ratcheted down the rhetoric, at least for a day, out of respect for or deference to or fear of the former auditor general. Sheila Fraser? Sheila who?