Ralph Goodale on the politics of income trusts

This morning, after Question Period in the House of Commons, former Finance Minister Ralph Goodale (left) scrummed. The questions here come from several reporters:

Reporter: The Prime Minister won't apologize. He says you owe Canadians an apology.

Goodale: Well, both the Conservatives and the NDP have obviously been politically motivated for very partisan reasons right from the very beginning on this file. Their interest has not been the proper functioning of capital markets. It has been to smear and insult and destroy the reputations of other people and the public will judge that, I'm sure. They will be able to see through a Prime Minister that simply simply cannot admit that he went over the top on this issue as well as continuing to run paid political ads that contain now what is obvious to everyone as a blatant falsehood and surely the integrity of a Prime Minister would demand that when he knows he is not telling the truth, he should come clean.

Reporter: So what will you do about that?

Goodale: I haven't considered all of my options at this stage. Obviously that is a matter for further deliberations. I know that there is a process in relation to the advertising industry that can be pursued. What should happen though is just without further administrative or legal proceedings, the government should simply do the right thing.

Reporter: But is suing an option?

Goodale: I haven't really thought that through.

Reporter: How has this investigation affected you personally? 

Goodale: Well, it has been a very tough year. It has been a year of a lot of pressure and besmirching of reputation, a lot of insinuation and falsehood in a context where you really weren't at liberty to defend yourself. It is pretty tough, but you know, I realize that in political life, there is rough and tumble. The rules are not always fair, the behavior at least is not always fair, but I think by any decent independent standard, the abuse peaked in this instance went way beyond anything that anybody could consider as normal or reasonable.

Reporter: Did you lose sleep over it?

Goodale: Oh yes.

Reporter: Are you satisfied with the controls over the finance department to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again, that is, of course,  if the charges are, in fact, true?

Goodale: Well, I think your point about making it clear that these are at this stage allegations is a very important point. I will not comment in any detail upon the circumstances because quite frankly it is a matter that is now formally and officially before a court proceeding. The department of finance officials though that I have had the privilege to work with over the last couple of years are people of the highest order of integrity. They work very hard at doing their job and doing it properly. They take the responsibility seriously. The department will no doubt be examining their procedures in light of these circumstances, but I think any detailed comment as to exactly what may have transpired and exactly what ought to transpire in the future will have to wait another time when there are not specific court proceedings pending.

Reporter: Have you talked to Paul Martin about this?

Goodale: Mr. Martin and I have had a conversation in the last 24 hours, yes.

Reporter: What did he say?

Goodale: He obviously regrets the circumstances, both political and personal just as much as I do and he believes very strongly that setting aside the legal issues, he believes very strongly with me that both the NDP and the Conservatives and to a certain extent the Bloc engaged in personally abusive behavior here that should not, even in the toughest hurly-burly of political life, should not have a place in how our system functions. 

Reporter: Do you think you could have won that last election then, had it not been for income trusts?

Goodale: I think you probably have to ask people who are more in charge of the national campaign, but I think there is no doubt that it had a very profound influence. In my own riding, the influence was a backlash in my favor. The controversy at the end of the day actually helped to win us more votes, more workers, more signs, more volunteers, more money. So in a very back-handed kind of way, it actually made it easier to win because local voters really rallied to my cause, but at the national level, the impact was undoubtedly negative.

Reporter: The Prime Minister said today you should never have said there is nothing going on in your department, that is what you said publicly and you should never have said that.

Goodale: Right from the very beginning, I said that if there were any legal authority, any proper investigative body that thought this matter needed investigation, that they had the full power and authority to conduct that investigation whether that be the police or the security commission or whatever, they had all of that full independent authority and they should exercise that authority and that my department and me and my staff would cooperate 100% and that is exactly what happened and I made that commitment very early in this whole process. Thank you.