Stonewall

Can we be sure that this headline...

Silent out of loyalty

...doesn't belong on this story?

Former Liberal cabinet minister David Dingwall ran out the clock on Parliament this morning, remaining out of sight and out of reach of a special summons ordering him to appear before a House committee to answer questions about his lobbying activities.

Mr. Dingwall, who in one case charged lobbying contingency fees in violation of government guidelines and in another failed to register as a lobbyist, refused to show up for a scheduled appearance Monday afternoon to testify before the government operations committee.

I'm somewhat surprised that Dingwall wasn't willing to make another appearance, given that he seemed to have pretty solid answers to the charges against him last time he testified. And his failure to appear now has to lead to speculation about what he doesn't want to talk about in another round of questioning. But for the Liberals at large, it's almost certainly a plus to limit discussion of a scandal (even if a relatively trivial one) to Dingwall's absence rather than to any new testimony before the party goes to the polls.

Mind you, it has to be a worse sitution for voters generally to go to the polls with less information than they should have. But it shouldn't be much of a surprise that that's not the top priority of a Liberal loyalist.