6163...Peterboro Weighs In On Dean Del Mastro

From The Peterborough Examiner comes this letter to the editor regarding that town's second favourite son.

Masterful performance suspended the facts

Re “MP wants his name cleared” (June 14) –

Dean Del Mastro gave a stunning performance in the House of Commons last week, asking for the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs to, in effect, use its muscle as overseer of Elections Canada to remove the cloud of allegations hovering over him. He, like all Canadian voters, is impatient with the progress of Elections Canada in its ongoing investigations of voter fraud during the past two federal elections.

Clearly, his next profession should take him to the theatrical stage. He is that good. We are to suspend all the facts at hand and to let our hearts simply hear the impassioned wobble in his voice and his earnestly compelling cries of victimization at the hands of a malicious and contemptuous agency of the Canadian government.

Court documents reveal that Elections Canada alleges Del Mastro and his financial agent, Richard McCarthy, exceeded spending limits in the 2008 campaign and that a falsified document was allegedly included in the return.

Indeed, Elections Canada called in the RCMP to assist with two separate investigations into the 2008 Del Mastro campaign: the one above and equally damaging allegations of fraud. Some employees of Deltro Electric Ltd. have claimed that they were induced to donate $1,000 to Del Mastro’s campaign, all of which they were reimbursed, together with a stipend of $50, by their employer.

Elections Canada and the RCMP are apparently still investigating.

About the only thing on which I would agree with Mr. Del Mastro is that Elections Canada is taking a very long time. However, given the additional burden of investigating so many other Conservative candidates and the situation of alleged voter fraud in over 200 ridings across Canada, well, one can see why thorough investigations can take so long.

After all, didn’t it take six years for the Conservatives “in and out” fraud case to be resolved?

LEXY CAMERON

RR 2, Lakefield

Bob Gainey, of course, is number one.

WFDS