Fallout from Ontario "Colle-gate"

UPDATE: The BEST line so far... "The flip thing to say is, as a colleague suggested, that Mr. McGuinty has finally lived up to his promise to phase out 'Colle' by 2007." (from Murray Campbell, via the Globe & Mail)

I figured that this Ontario version of the Liberal "Sponsorship Scandal" would just get some passing media attention, and then just go away, like all the other negative stories about Premier McGuinty's Liberals... looks like I was way wrong on that one. Cudos to the MSM on this one.

CBC Toronto's "Metro Morning" actually did a call-in segment on their radio program this morning, and I was quite surprised at the response... there's actualy quite a bit of anger over this, based on the number of calls recieved.

Here's a quick overview of the stories from the various media sources...

Ont. citizenship minister quits in wake of auditor's report
(and in their "Related Links" section: Liberals quash request for 'Colle-gate' probe)

Minister takes the fall as Ontario A-G blasts multicultural grants

Minister resigns over 'slush fund'

Perhaps one of the most damaging headlines from the Toronto Star, of all places: Why did premier wait so long? (in reference to Mr. McGunity's firing of Minister Colle)

Auditor General's report finds flaws in provincial funding for cultural groups

Ont. Auditor General Report Says Grant Process 'Not Transparent'

How's this for bad optics? "In the coming weeks, you will hear a lot from opposition politicians about the cricket association that asked for $150,000 after it was invited to apply for funding and the next day received $1-million. It had so much money that it spent $20,000 to throw a celebratory dinner (at which Mr. McGuinty spoke) and then socked away $500,000 in five-year, investment certificates.

Parents of autistic children or those running bake sales to buy school textbooks will scratch their heads. And thanks to Mr. McGuinty's faulty political instincts, they won't have time to forget before they head to the polls."

Interesting thing though... seems the crickets are chirping on this one over at CTV. I spent a few minutes checking under each section they could have possibly filed the story under, and it didn't make it anywhere on their website this morning... now I wonder why that is... just wondering...

UPDATE: Jason, Jason, Jason... your hero Mr. McGuinty already tried the denial route, and look how well that turned out. This will not go away so long as the denials continue. (then again, nor will it go away should admissions be made... so I guess you should just carry on...)

Joanne commented here that the crickets are chirping over on the Libbloggers too... with the exception of Big City Lib... cudos to him for a pretty unbiased posting, covering both the "good news" and "bad news" aspects for the Ontario Liberal Party. One question that I do have though... the Auditor may have looked into donations made by the groups that got grants, but has anyone looked closely at the members of those groups who have ties to the Ontario Liberal Party? That's where I think the majority of the "links" are showing up.