Has Victoria lawyer David Mulroney, the federal Liberal's candidate in Saanich-Gulf Islands, had been the beneficiary of party patronage? That's what Reform Party Kootenay-Columbia MP Jim Abbott wanted to know back in 1995. Speaking in the House of Commons, he accused the Grits of awarding Mr. Mulroney federal government drug prosecution work because he was vice-president of federal cabinet minister David Anderson's constituency association - a charge the Mr. Mulroney has always denied.

Previously, Macdonald & McNeely partner Gordon Macdonald, a lawyer with 20-years of drug prosecution experience, had been doing most of that work. But two years after taking office, the Liberals handed his cases over to Mr. Mulroney's firm, David S. Mulroney & Company, and two other companies which, at the time, had Liberal connections: Crease, Harman & Co. and McConnan, Bion, O'Connor & Peterson.

Speaking to Lawyers Weekly Ottawa bureau chief Cristin Schmitz, Mr. Macdonald, who isn't a card-carrying anything but donated $2,000 to Minister Anderson's 1993 election campaign, said the federal government gave no official reason why his firm's services as a Crown agent were terminated. But he added, "the new guys told me," it was for political reasons. "One of the new lawyers said it was a political matter and that we were going to be cut off and they were going to be put on."

Under questioning from Mr. Abbott, Justice Minister Allan Rock, who had promised in 1993 to reform his department's patronage-plagued Crown agent system, refused to say whether political matters had anything to do with the awarding of the federal legal work. But he did state the "fundamental criterion" used was "competence."

Before 1995, Mr. Mulroney had little previous experience handling drug prosecution cases. However, he told Ms. Schmitz "serious cases" would be handled by his partner Brian Jones, a certified criminal law specialist.

Since then, those cases, serious and otherwise, have earned Mr. Mulroney's company more than $5.3 million, making it one of the top billing Crown agents in the country. Over the same period, Mr. Mulroney and his firm have donated almost $25,000 to the federal Liberals and Minister Anderson's election campaigns. Between 1993 and 1994, Elections Canada has no record of Mr. Mulroney donating money to the federal Liberals.

David Mulroney's Donations & Billings

1995 - donates $468 to the federal Liberals; billed $228,151 in fiscal 1996/97
1996 - donates $2,248 to the federal Liberals; billed $548,622 in fiscal 1997/98
1997 - donates $1,000 to the federal Liberals and $1,000 to Minister Anderson's election campaign; billed $508,396 in fiscal 1998/99
1998 - donates $1,718 to the federal Liberals; billed $585,338 in fiscal 1999/00
1999 - donates $1,922 to the federal Liberals; billed $427,455 in fiscal 2000/01
2000 - donates $2,202 to the federal Liberals and $1,000 to Minister Anderson's election campaign; billed $973,601.09 in fiscal 2001/02
2001 - donates $10,253.87 to the federal Liberals; billed $1,033,942 in fiscal 2002/01
2002 - donates $3,993.02 to the federal Liberals; billed $956,872.15 in fiscal 2003/04