Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Gary Mar unrepentant on improper membership sales.

Gary Mar is above the rules, but he isn't doing it for himself, he is doing it for the good of democracy.

What a guy.

PCAA leadership candidate Gary Mar said his campaign volunteers did nothing wrong by selling party memberships within 50 metres of an Edmonton polling station. Adding that his supporters were only trying to help people who can't speak English. "Within the polling station, the advance polling station, you could buy a membership from the party," Mar said. "Except that there's no one at the party table that speaks three different dialects of Chinese."


So there you go. Even though selling memberships within 50 meters of a polling location is totally against PCAA rules, Gary doesn't care and claims that his volunteers did nothing wrong. Rules and ethics are for others I guess (which might just explain how this happened back in 2001-2004 while Mar was the Minister of Health)  

When he entered the race for leader Mar signed an agreement with the PCAA to follow the rules of the leadership contest, not just the rules he liked or agreed with, but all of the rules. I guess a signature on an agreement doesn't mean as much as it used to.(ud)

Honestly, is this the type of person that you want to lead our province? If this type of stuff happens during a leadership campaign can you imagine how a Mar led government would operate.

Pathetic.

On the bright side at least no volunteers were blamed or scapegoated today; although campaign spokesman Mark Kastner might not feel that way as it was yesterday when Kastner blamed the improper membership sales on "overzealous supporters" only to have his boss say today that nothing was wrong with those very same sales. Ouch.

Update: A scrutineer from the advanced vote says that she "spoke with at least 3 volunteers who were acting as interpreters and always available."

Why does this not surprise me.

6 comments:

maryT said...

I want to see and hear that volunteer who can speak and understand all those dialects. If he wins he can't be proud of the way he did it, and he can't get busloads of chinese to every poll in Alberta. Just like muslims have been looked at with suspicion since 9/11, every misstep Mar makes will be blamed on the Chinese in Alberta.

Ardvark said...

Don't let Mar's spin job fool you. They had a bad week and they/someone/Gary thought having Gary out in front of the camera spinning their line might help their shattered credibility.

But IMHO not giving a shit about the rules does not help ones credibility.

Big fail with only a couple of days left to go.

Anonymous said...

Does a cheater really win? Ralph with no carbs would be a disaster, Gary, the little career polititian who couldn't cut it as a lawyer. MLA must be one good gig to not stay with law, but he obviously stayed long enough to learn how to cheat it looks like, keep digging Ard, you are providing an important service to Albertans.

Fud said...

Can someone please help me find information on the Gary Mar large cash payments without receipts or paperwork for consulting fees several years ago. Seems that the shady event has been swept under the carpet and the carpet is missing !
Thanks.

Fud said...

Forgot to mention in my comment that the cash payments were to a close friend. thx again

MONSTER said...

Typical liberal tacticts. The pc,s are going down big time next election.