Remember David Smith? He was the former rookie Liberal MP for the Quebec riding of Pontiac. In 2005, the computer consultancy firm he once ran, Abotech, then run by his wife, a nurse, and his two teen children from the family home, found its government contracts cancelled after an audit at Scott Brison's Ministry of Public Works and Government Services revealed undefined irregularities.
An investigation by this blogger revealed that this former company of David Smith's, himself a self-declared aboriginal (based on the claim that one great-grandmother was a native), was getting contracts from Public Works directed to him by Frank Brazeau. Frank Brazeau was David Smith's cousin.
What did Abotech do? It improperly received contracts, repackaged them, then sent it off to the contracted firms actually doing the work, taking a cut of Canadian tax dollars for doing, well, nothing.
The interest in the story culminated in a two-party CBC radio investigation. I would highly recommend you listen to the reports to ground yourself in the Abotech story.
David Smith lost the riding in the 2006 election, and lost badly, coming in third behind Tory Lawrence Cannon, and the BQ candidate. At that point, he disappeared.
I figured that will all the trouble with Abotech, David Smith would not be showing his face again in the political arena.
I was wrong. From the list of endorsements on Stephane Dion's website:
That's right, Stephane Dion has been endorsed by David Smith.
Better yet, I have heard (but am still waiting for documentary confirmation) that both David Smith and Frank Brazeau are going to be delegates for Stephane Dion.
I suppose for any media people who have tried to track down Smith, head to Montreal on November 28.
This is supposed to be the new Liberal Party. The renewed Liberal Party. The honest Liberal Party. But David Smith, an MP who used family connections within government for personal gain, cynically enriching himself with our tax dollars, is part of that old Liberal Party. Maybe Stephane Dion is not really one of those new Liberals. Maybe Stephane Dion ought to be put in the same "old Liberal" column along with Joe Volpe.
