On damaged goods

Many Libs blamed the income-trust fiasco for torpedoing their campaign. Now the issue has surfaced again, and this time it may shift some momentum in the Lib leadership race:

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has turned over an e-mail received from Liberal MP Scott Brison to police and regulators as part of a probe into the income-trust controversy that dogged the Liberals in the recent election campaign, The Globe and Mail has learned.

Sources said the former public works minister, a potential contender for the Liberal leadership, sent an e-mail to one of CIBC's employees the day before Ottawa announced its much-anticipated policy on income trusts last November, in which he suggested the recipient would likely be pleased by the decision.

The speculation would be bad enough on its own. But Brison's personal response only makes matters worse: at best he seems to have forgotten how to answer tough questions, and at worst he seems to be making up inconsistent claims in his own defence, moving from a firm denial to a claim of ignorance when asked if he might have sent such a message:

When asked later whether he personally had a communication in which he might have speculated on the outcome without firm knowledge, Mr. Brison said "No," adding, "You're asking me something in terms of communication that I don't remember. I don't recall anything."

We'll see whether or not the story on Brison's possible involvement stays in the public eye long enough to have much of an impact. But for a party that seems to learn only the bare minimum from its mistakes, it doesn't seem unlikely that a good number of Libs will conclude that the lesson from Campaign 2006 is that anything to do with income trusts should be kept as far out of the spotlight as possible. And if that includes a top leadership candidate, then so be it.