Ontario government sued for $700 million

[CaptainCrunch]

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topst...dgLE&ocid=iehp

Yeah, this looks dirty, that Ontario Government is stupid on one hand and corrupt on the other hand.

The lawsuit, filed in 2011, claims that Pickens’ renewable energy company, Mesa Power, lost out on wind power contracts to Florida-based NextEra Energy because NextEra donated $18,600 to the governing Liberal Party before the 2011 provincial election. The suit says this gave NextEra exclusive access to government officials.
The lawsuit notes that NextEra's chief lobbyist at the time, Bob Lopinski, was a former advisor to then-Premier Dalton mcGuinty.

A review of documents and emails between NextEra executives, lobbyists and government officials show that NextEra met and held calls with high-level officials at the Ontario Ministry of Energy, the premier’s office and the power authority, even as Mesa Power executives were told they could not speak to officials until contracts were awarded. When NextEra lobbyists requested more information, officials sometimes responded within hours.

[PsYcNeT]

Isn't that the angry Texas oil billionaire who gave a ludicrous amount of money to a group to discredit John Kerry in 2004?

Title should be changed to "Timely Liberal bashing article notes that ridiculously old billionaire suing Ont. government for the last 4 years; news just catching up apparently"

[David Struch]

This reminds me, I recently seen the headline of an article that said the Harper Government donated 8 million of our tax dollars to the the American Republican Party, not sure if it was legit or not... I didn't read the actual story.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Isn't that the angry Texas oil billionaire who gave a ludicrous amount of money to a group to discredit John Kerry in 2004?

Title should be changed to "Timely Liberal bashing article notes that ridiculously old billionaire suing Ont. government for the last 4 years; news just catching up apparently"

Have you looked at the track record of the Ontario Government and McGuinty

But I guess you have to have your defense mechanisms.

[TurdFerguson]

[PsYcNeT]

He's certainly having a lot of luck proving the collusion. 4 year trial and all that.

[CaptainCrunch]

Yup because real life is just like the movies with 2 day trials and all.

[PsYcNeT]

"Hey Bob did you hear about this McGuinty trial? Yeah it's a real humdinger! We should run it tomorrow!"

"Naw Ralph, sit on it til the next election, even if there's nothing new to report. It won't seem obvious at all."

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by David Struch

This reminds me, I recently seen the headline of an article that said the Harper Government donated 8 million of our tax dollars to the the American Republican Party, not sure if it was legit or not... I didn't read the actual story.

They gave the money to the International Republican Institute, which is only loosely affiliated with the Republican Party in the US. It's actually affiliated with the UN and is likely a channel to fund aid to the Ukraine during their initial crisis

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

"Hey Bob did you hear about this McGuinty trial? Yeah it's a real humdinger! We should run it tomorrow!"

"Naw Ralph, sit on it til the next election, even if there's nothing new to report. It won't seem obvious at all."

You do know that the story was linked to a story in the New York Times dated today right? I'm sure that the New York times is just all over going after Canadian Liberals.

And just sitting on it to spoil Trudeau's election hopes.

[rubecube]

I'm not really sure how this hurts Trudeau.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

You do know that the story was linked to a story in the New York Times dated today right? I'm sure that the New York times is just all over going after Canadian Liberals.

And just sitting on it to spoil Trudeau's election hopes.

Well really, the whole thrust of the article is "this thing is happening soon". Which isn't really news, usually news is "thing happened, here are the results".

"Thing is happening soon" articles either have an agenda or are just fluff.

[2Stonedbirds]

No biggie, just put it on their tab!

[RougeUnderoos]

Yeah, this is just a coincidence. Old Pickens doesn't have anything in Harper winning, except maybe a few promises or something.

Just like the leftie site 'rabble' bringing up the robocall scandal just yesterday was pure journalism and had nothing to do with timing.

Of course, that scandal was small potatoes and of no consequence to Canadians. Nothing like this buzzard pissed off because he greased the wrong palms.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I'm not really sure how this hurts Trudeau.

It doesn't it has nothing to do with Trudeau, I don't get why people are thinking it does.

It is news, it is in front of the Nafta Tribunal with a ruling this month. This isn't a legal action that hasn't been filed and is floating out there, it does look like influence peddling by the Ontario Government, and it goes to a pattern of both incompetence and corruption by the Ontario Government through the power plant scandals, the Oranje scandal and quite a few other things that the Dalton and the Wynne governments have been involved in.

Its a news story Psycnet, its happening right now, its in front of the NAFTA tribunal with a ruling this month.

I don't get what looks like you're dismissal of the story here, except to maybe defend an ideology.

[WilsonFourTwo]

Had Pickens' lobbying efforts paid off (swap his Mesa Power for NextEra Energy) he wouldn't have any problems with how this had gone down.

He's upset because he lost the game, not because of the corruption that may/may not have existed (It likely does to some extent, in my opinion).

In short, he got out-lobbied.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

Had Pickens' lobbying efforts paid off (swap his Mesa Power for NextEra Energy) he wouldn't have any problems with how this had gone down.

He's upset because he lost the game, not because of the corruption that may/may not have existed (It likely does to some extent, in my opinion).

In short, he got out-lobbied.

The fact that the Liberal party accepted a donation then threw the door open even though they said that kind the kind of contact that happened between the company and the government wouldn't be allowed when combined with a former member of McQuinty's staff being a key lobbyist is a pretty clear sign of corruption to me.

What the winning company did doesn't look like lobbying its purchased influence on the surface.