Bravo for Jason Walker. Everyone can reach their own conclusion about Volpe's defence of the contributions and his apparent belief that the money - as required by law - belonged to the 11-year-olds and was donated by them, not on behalf of anyone else.
But party officials' defence of the donations has been truly bizarre. The Liberals' are in danger of self-destruction over leadership-race fundraising and need more party members wo will sound an alarm.

Welcome to the New Liberal Party.

The silent majority of honest and hard working members are taking the party back to where it belongs.

"Welcome to the New Liberal Party.

The silent majority of honest and hard working members are taking the party back to where it belongs. "

Are they? It appears that the major leadership
campaigns are being run by the same old people.

This will become clear if Dion becomes leader.

Welcome to the New Liberal Party.

Where learning from past mistakes isn't used.

Where people with good intentions point out errors that need to be fixed, only to be brushed
aside from the self-important people running and supporitnt the candiates and their campaigns.

"But party officials' defence of the donations has been truly bizarre. The Liberals' are in danger of self-destruction over leadership-race fundraising and need more party members wo will sound an alarm."

The way things are going, one has to throw the hands up and say 'why bother' and walk.

Then just support the Liberal Party by voting for the Liberal candidate at election time.

Good on Walker! These people cannot be silenced. I think Volpe should do the honorable thing and just drop out.

Question for you Jason, when you were handed the script regarding your question you forgot to ask something very important, when cheques come in do they have peoples birthdates on them? I don't know about you but my cheques just have my name and address.

You must be a rank amateur when it comes to political campaigns. Lets open this debate further, why do we allow children to become members of the party at 14? Maybe we should raise the limit to 19.

I am glad Volpe returned the money. Atleast he had the good sense to act when it was brought to his attention. I hope he stays in the race, he must have a lot of people worried about his campaign to elicit such a response.

Look, why doesn't every candidate come clean with the leadership donations?

Good question JD. Where is Iggy's money coming from. Bet you its not the tea totting crowd behind the tweed curtain! Pass the crumpets and scones please, marvellous cucumber sandwiches darling. Sorry can't give you any money Iggy, thats beneath me. Can't get our hands dirty. Go talk to the riff raff (I mean party members) on the other side of town.

To Jen : The problem was that Mr Volpe and his people spent almost 4 days defending their position that they did not break any laws, not that "there may be a problem let me check it out"
He was shamed into returning the money!

Jen and Joe still just don't get it. She is probably the only other Canadian apart from joe who believes that his speech inspried 5 children to donate 5,400.00 to his campaign. It is absolutely ludicrous.

Until a light was shone on this perceived wrong, everyone thought it was okay. As liberals we want to get away from this crap. we want to be seen as honest and decent.

What secrecy are you talking about? AFAIK Mike Ignatieff BORROWED funds and will have to pay them back. There are no huge multiple donations from the same family.

And Yes Jen, when you get 5 cheques with the max. amount from the same name you do notice, you do know the donor. You know everything about it, because the cheques just don?t fall from the sky. Hopefully you and your Dionistas do not have the same problem.

In case you didn't notice Gerald Fisher it was "we" Liberals that brought in campaign financing reform. When you talk about "perceived wrong" lets be clear, I would be concerned if there were 100 such cheques from kids as young as 14. It turns out this wasn't the case. Thats good enough for me.

Every leadership candidate has to disclose his or her leadership donations to Elections Canada. Why not log on to their website and look up their financials? Not hard to do. I'm sure you can get a pretty good feel of where each candidate's donations are coming from by doing so. Just beware of a household of 15;)

In today's politics it is essential to fundraise for campaigns, leadership or otherwise. Politics is expensive.

And there is no question that it is sometimes difficult to determine the source of funds (but that's what you have staff for.) If you can't determine the legitimacy of the source, give it back.

And no doubt a bunch of cheques from the same address in this new era of restricted donations should have sent alarm bells off somewhere.

Personally, I think that like so often in politics it wasn't the act that was lethal, it was the reaction. And Steve MacKinnon (who I like and respect) should have done a better job at insulating the party by asking for some accountability from Volpe and his folks.

If Volpe had just said, "we didn't notice, we're paying it back today" there wouldn't have been nearly the issue. But he didn't so he has to deal with the fallout.

The fear I have given the number of people in the race is that a whole whack of them rack up significant debts (see Tony Clement, John Munro, et al) and the party feels obligated to help them pay off their debt instead of fundraising for the impending election.

My 2 cents.

Mr. Walker also confirmed he was "hasseled" on his way out of the room by one of Mr. Volpe's supporters - whom others identified as being the candidate's national campaign coordinator Jim Karygiannis. "He was very angry. ...

So, would that be the same Jim Karygiannis who is the Liberal MP for the Toronto area riding of Scarborough-Agincourt? [http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/ProfileMP.aspx?Key=78401&Language=E]
That Jim Karygiannis has been a Liberal MP since 1988, and in this January's election, the humble and grateful voters of Scarborough-Agincourt re-elected Mr Karygiannis with 62.6% of the vote.

"In today's politics it is essential to fundraise for campaigns, leadership or otherwise. Politics is expensive."

In terms of material costs (advertisements, etc.)
it can be, but another problem is too many people figure they want to be paid. Reduce the number of paid people and reduce the campaign costs (salaries are getting to be a bit too much)

Not long ago, many paid positions now were unpaid volunteers. Too much motive on profit and not enough on dedication.

There's also a choice when it comes to rules regarding fundraising for leadership candidates.

Either have the party make the rules that are
acceptable to everyone, or..

Have Elections Canada do it for you.

This party needs renewal. Big time.

Good for Mr. Walker.

The sooner Volpe is shamed out of the race, the better for our party.

I've blogged about this over at http://manitobaliberal.blogspot.com/ as well.

Unsually, this is the financial agent/manager's issue... and even then only sort of as even they are not usaully sure who is giving the the money. Having said that, the financial managers of today have to verify sources - that is now part of the job. It's nearly an impossible job but part of the job.

I suspect we will eventually get to a system where money is passed to an independent government auditor first who, verifies that the money is "straight", and then forwards it to an audited bank account... because financial agents are usually just volunteers and in most cases auditing thousand of transactions is just beyond a volunteer's capability.

Did anybody hear about MI's big argument with a riding president?

Having done some fund raising in the past, if I had seen multiple cheques coming in with the same last name on them, I would have asked questions, especially if there are a bunch who are all linked to one business. And these cheques from Apotek totalled up to $108,000 - Why are they supporting Joe?

"Jen and Joe still just don't get it. She is probably the only other Canadian apart from joe who believes that his speech inspried 5 children to donate 5,400.00 to his campaign. It is absolutely ludicrous."

Its not only LUDICROUS but it shows the utter contempt Volpe(and most liberals for that matter)have for the Canadian public.

What 11 year old would give $5400 to a political cause, let alone have $5400 to begin with?! Secondly, what are the odds of TWO such 11 year olds doing this?

I'm curious to see what the name/signature that was on that cheque because I doubt an 11 year old would have a chequing account.

This from the Michael Ignatieff website. When donating you are required to declare:

* I am a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.

* I am making this donation with my own personal credit card and not with a corporate or business credit card.

* I am at least 18 years of age.

Can anyone ask for more?

Walker is a Ignatieff/Keith Martin volunteer. Does ANYONE see how this was simply an oppourtunity to slag an opposing candidate, and not "taking a moral stand"? If this guy actually had any respect for his political party, there's no WAY he would do this in a way that publicly embarrassed the party.

"Walker is a Ignatieff/Keith Martin volunteer. Does ANYONE see how this was simply an oppourtunity to slag an opposing candidate, and not "taking a moral stand"? If this guy actually had any respect for his political party, there's no WAY he would do this in a way that publicly embarrassed the party."

If Mr. Volpe and Mr. McKinnon had any respect for the party, they would have immediately apologized to the public and reassured the public that the Liberal Party of Canada will encourage its respective candidates and financial agents to be cautious when taking any donation in the future.

Don't try to make this an issue of one camp attacking another because it's not. It is about restoring the integrity of this party that we all care about.

Don't make Mr. Walker the bad guy here because he was only doing what Mr. Mackinnon, the LPC executive and Mr. Volpe himself failed to do.

Its very much a reflection on his character that he would go as far as to suggest that two 11 year olds were so inspired by him that they decided to give him that much money. Joe Vople is only hurting the Liberal Party by staying in this race, he shoud do the responsible thing and quit now. No one takes him seriously after this and no one should take anyone associated with him seriously either.

Dear "outraged" you should have a reality check. The people who are pulling your strings are the ones who should resign. People have taken Volpe serious enough to attack him for 5 cheques that were returned. What about your backers "outraged"? Where did the money for the Paul Martin leadership campaign come from? Who paid for the memberships?

I understand the other candidates for leadership have had to borrow money from the banks to fund their campaigns. Should they return the money because after all the next leader may be the next PM and could possibly open the doors to major bank mergers. There could be this quid-pro-quo arrangement in existence.

Something tells me Volpe is the only candidate with enough support to actually have people fund his campaign.

Jen be serious, something tells you Volpe is the only candidate with enough support to actually have people fund his campaign. Clearly you are not a Liberal nor do you care about the future of the Liberal Party. Yous seem to have forgotten that the Liberal Party lost its majority and then its government because Canadians the conservatives made those elections a question about accountability and ethics. Joe Volpes attempt to spin this is pathetic and an embarrasment, perharps thats why his support in caucus and in the party as a whole is so dismal. I feel sorry for the people who are supporting him they must just want to squirm every time he gets in front of a room and talks about how these children were so inspired by him that they went to thier parents and offered to contribute $5400 to his campaign $5400! Who is he kidding, seriously. This is perfect example of just because is not illegal doesn't mean you should do it. As a proud liberal who knocked on doors and was called a crook I think its time the Party got as away from having its ethics ever called into question. Volpe should go.

Dear "outraged" if you are a proud Liberal than you should recognize the contribution and commitment people like Volpe have provided to the Liberal Party of Canada. You must be extremely naive to believe we will never have our ethics called into question. It's a part of the game whether you like it or not. The Conservatives are back in power and being advised my people such as former PM Brian Mulroney who, I would like to remind you, accepted $300,000 cash in a hotel room from a person who stated a few months ago he never did any work for this money.

Incredibly you have Brian Mulroney and his former cronies advising the current government. Steven Harper talks to Brian Mulroney on a routine basis. Does this mean we should demand he resign! Harken back to the early 90's when these very same people were booted out because they were seen as corrupt and unethical. Fast forward to the present day and you find these very same people back in various roles.

If you were called a crook then obviously you didn't have the jam or the good sense to point out the human flaws that we all possess. Volpe made a mistake and worked to correct that mistake. The last time I checked he didn't accept $300,000 in a hotel room in Switzeralnd. This may be perfectly legal for Brian Mulroney to do this but the optics are bad. Should Harper disown Mulroney because he shouldn't accept such a huge amount of cash in a hotel room?

Isn't it also ironic that Paul Martin takes the risky move of appointing the Gomery commission to get to the bottom of the sponsorship scandal yet he is then punished for trying to clean things up. As Federal Liberals we made our share of mistakes and misdeeds. However look at the country today compared to the shape it was in when we were first elected. The record, the achievements and the positive accomplishments for the country are unmatched. We are better off today than we were before the Federal Liberals were elected in 1993. So if you are called a crook next time you door knock, thank that person for their time and remember all governments have things they wish they could change.

The good ship lolipop is leaving the dock, you better run quickly or you will miss it.

This story seemed so good until the end.

"Mr. Walker also confirmed he was "hassled" on his way out of the room by one of Mr. Volpe's supporters - whom others identified as being the candidate's national campaign coordinator Jim Karygiannis. "He was very angry. He was angry that I raised the issue...And my response was this is about children and it is not open for debate. It involves children. It is wrong. And this is not what our party's about. And we need to step up and take responsibility. And, as a president, I don't expect to be harassed on my way out of a meeting by an observer.""

What's with the arrogance? Or is it indignation? Can a party win with that attitude? He can take potshots at someone but nobody else can give him their point of view without him feeling "hassled"? And god forbid someone to pollute his presence who isn't a "president"...

The good ship lolipop is like the Titanic its headed straight towards an iceberg. If Volpe wants to sink his political career by entangling himself in this nonsense then he can go right ahead but I will not standby and watch him tarnish the party of Pearson in the process.