Angry in the Great White North

From CTV:

Finance Minister Ralph Goodale denies anyone in his office leaked word of changes to income trust policy, even as one man told CTV News he was tipped off in a phone call from one of the minister's senior advisors.

In the hours before Goodale announced that the federal government was increasing the tax credit on corporate dividends two weeks ago, there was heavier-than-usual trading in income trusts and dividend-paying stocks. That has fuelled speculation that some investors profited from an early warning.

Goodale has insisted all along that no advance word came from his office. "The Finance Department is very meticulous about these matters," he said Tuesday. "There was no specific advance notice whatsoever."

The man who claims to be have been tipped off was an associate executive director of Canada's Association for the Fifty Plus, William Gleberzon.

"The day they made the announcement they phoned us and said something is going to be said," the associate executive director of Canada's Association for the Fifty Plus, William Gleberzon, told CTV News.

Gleberzon said the call came from a senior policy advisor in the finance minister's office.

When asked what exactly he was told, Gleberzon indicated the specifics were vague, but the underlying message was clear.

"They said something was going to be announced later in the day. And we assumed that if they told us that ... it would probably be something we'd be happy with."

In years past, when someone in a minister's office was caught doing something scandalously wrong, the minister would be honour-bound to resign, since he has ultimate responsibility over his ministry.

The last time I recall a major political figure willingly resigning on a point of honour, as opposed to being hounded and finally dragged out kicking and screaming, was when Sheila Copps resigned her seat in 1996 when the Liberals refused to honour their 1993 election pledge to axe the Goods and Services Tax.

What little honour there was left in the Liberal Party evapourated when Copps immediately ran for re-election and won. She was put back into cabinet by Jean Chretien. Nothing had changed, the GST remained, and instead of making a point, Copps made a mockery of the notion of resigning on a matter of principle.

If these allegations concerning insider trading prove to be true, does anyone seriously believe that Ralph Goodale would leave politics?