It's not my job to defend Warren Kinsella, but he's right about one thing: this story is complete nonsense:
Premier Dalton McGuinty's top political strategist has met secretly with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's most trusted adviser.
In a twist to the bitter fiscal feud between McGuinty and Prime Minister Paul Martin, Liberal Warren Kinsella attended an Albany Club strategy session two weeks ago with senior federal Tories.
Kinsella, a key architect of McGuinty's 2003 Ontario election victory, spoke with Tom Flanagan, manager of the Conservatives' 2004 national campaign and Harper's closest aide.
The April 6 dinner was held the day after Harper telephoned McGuinty to talk about the premier's campaign for an infusion of $5 billion from Ottawa.
I'm happy to back Warren up on this. I don't know how on Earth this story made it to press, but the whole thing is totally inaccurate.
There was no Tory "strategy session" at the Albany Club. The event was a private dinner for a club that Warren has long been a member of. The club is primarily made up of center-right political activists, journalists, businesspeople and think-tank staff. Warren and other Liberals like John Duffy -- the senior Martin strategist -- are both members. (Duffy was a featured speaker at one of the dinners not long ago.) I remember seeing Warren at one of the club's dinners sometime back in 2001.
Tom Flanagan happened to be there on April 6 because he was one of the invited speakers that night. I'm a member of the club but was not present at that particular dinner, but spoke to a couple of people who attended.
Again, I'm not here to defend Warren but this is clearly a deliberate -- and pretty weak -- attempt to tar him. His demand for a correction is more than justified.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:20 AM
