It Is Time ALL Parties Stopped This Petty Bullshit In The House

Let's get on with the business of the country and leave these personal attacks for media scrums where if you screw up you are open to the same type of action the rest of the citizenry must face.

May I peek over your shoulder?
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

New Democrats apologize for false allegations

Updated Thu. Dec. 6 2007 7:49 PM ET

CTV.ca News

The NDP has delivered a second formal apology in as many days for making false allegations against political opponents.

On Wednesday, MP Irene Mathyssen retracted claims she made against Tory MP James Moore during question period earlier in the day. She had alleged that he had been looking at pictures of scantily clad women on his laptop in the House.

Moore vehemently denied the accusation; it turned out the pictures were of Moore's girlfriend. Mathyssen later spoke with Moore and apologized.

But she was not in the House on Thursday to make a formal apology there, something Prime Minister Stephen Harper demanded.

The NDP, however, did deliver another apology. This one to former Liberal candidate David Oliver and his campaign manager Gordie Kahlon.

New Democrat Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson had alleged they had tried to bribe him to drop out of the 2006 election race in Abbotsford, B.C., and support the Liberals.

House Leader Libby Davies said that "The New Democratic Party admits we seriously erred in making the allegations public and in putting a young and inexperienced candidate in a position where he felt justified in making those allegations and to repeat them on some 40 occasions to media across Canada.''

The apology was a requirement of a lawsuit settlement, which also mandated paying the pair damages.

"There were never any facts to support an allegation of bribery or attempted bribery,'' Davies said.

The Liberals didn't miss the opportunity to criticize the NDP's political blunders.

"The NDP have this sanctimonious air that they like to put on,'' Liberal House leader Ralph Goodale said.

"But the fact of the matter is what they've engaged in here is a kind of political bottom feeding."

But Oliver, who was dropped by the Liberals soon after the bribery allegations emerged, wasn't kind to his former colleagues.

"My own party -- or my own ex-party, I guess -- has not done the same thing," he told the Canadian Press.

"They have not "fessed up" and said, `Oh, sorry, we did not do our due diligence before we fired you.' ''