Peter MacKay Dogged By Alleged Stronach Comments On His Return To Ottawa
Posted October 25, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
That’s one luxury Peter MacKay can’t afford.
The Foreign Affairs Minister came back to Ottawa Wednesday and the opposition attacked with all its political guns blazing.
But it wasn’t the war in Afghanistan or the situation in North Korea that had their attention. Instead, it was a comment MacKay insists he never made.
The besieged Tory MP was once again forced to deny he ever called his ex-girlfriend – and now Liberal – Belinda Stronach a dog in an off mike joke in the House of Commons last week.
The barely audible exchange supposedly has MacKay being asked by a Liberal “What about your dog?”
A voice can be heard saying something like “You have her” and critics charge MacKay pointed to her ex’s empty seat as he said it.
“Obviously I was traveling abroad with other members … on international obligations,” he told his colleagues Wednesday. “I made no such gesture. I made no derogatory remarks towards any member of this House.”
Stronach’s response to that was also off camera, but she could be seen mouthing her own comment to her seatmate. “I’m not surprised,” she said.
The opposition is still demanding an apology and now maintains MacKay committed a far more serious offence – lying to Parliament about his actions.
House Speaker Peter Milliken admits he didn’t hear the comment and originally said there was nothing he could do to pursue it.
But now he’s agreed to review the issue, after several Liberals signed sworn affidavits maintaining they heard the offensive sentence.
MacKay and Stronach were romantically linked for a time, until she accepted an offer from the Liberals to save the government of then-Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Since then, an icy silent curtain has been drawn between the pair and Stronach has demanded an apology for the alleged dog slur.
But MacKay continues to maintain he has nothing to apologize for. And so far, he hasn’t.
That has others casting their own aspersions against the embattled minister.
“He is a coward,” insists Liberal MP Marlene Jennings. “What can I tell you? He is a coward and he is a man without honour.”
