Internet sleuthery claims another victim

Crazy (but not unpredictably so) how much the internet has impacted candidates in this election.

Just today, another candidate, this time a Liberal, is being burned by information dug up on the web. Apparently the Liberal candidate for Winnipeg Centre, Daniel Hurley, billed election expenses to Canadian taxpayers to the tune of $1,547.56 in the 2005/06 election.

Stephen Taylor deserves a lot of credit for this one. He weaves together news items and expense claims that he found on the internet to prove that Hurley (Stephane Dion's chief of staff at the time) traveled with Dion to Edmonton for the purposes of electioneering, and then filed an expense claim for the trip with Environment Canada. Included in the claim was $166.60 for meals. For two days. No Harvey's or Timmy Ho's for this Liberal.

This newest scandal is not as immediately intriguing as some of the others, but it's probably more shameful. I mean, this heightened-sense-of-entitlement Liberal thought that Canadians should pay for his Liberal campaigning. Somebody should have explained to Hurley prior to the 2005/06 election that "the Natural Governing Party" is just what Liberals call themselves. It's not actually true. There are still elections, and those elections are supposed to be fair.

But this candidate's misuse of government funds likely won't get the same level of coverage that other candidates got for say, smoking pot. I guess it's lacking the web 2.0 angle...maybe if there was a YouTube video of Hurley submitting the expense claim, this story might take off.