Harper defends communications director from allegations of influence-peddling
Posted Apr 21, 2011 06:33:35 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has come to the defence of one of his top aides.
While on a campaign stop in Quebec, he said Dimitri Soudas did not try to influence who got the top job at the Port of Montreal.
The prime minister was asked about reports that accused his communications director of seeking the choice of the port’s new chairman in 2007.
Harper says it’s not unusual for the government to express its preference in such cases, but in this case the board chose another candidate.
Reports say Soudas tried to strong-arm members of the board into choosing Robert Abdallah, a former director-general at Montreal City Hall.
The job eventually went instead to Patrice Pelletier.
Meanwhile, they say where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Luckily, the saying didn’t hold true when smoke began pouring into the cabin of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s campaign plane moments before takeoff.
The Boeing 737-400 was minutes away from heading to Yarmouth from Saint John, New Brunswick when light, grey smoke suddenly started circulating around the overhead bins.
It dissipated within about 15 seconds, but the disconcerting journey didn’t end there.
The flight was supposed to take 25 minutes, but stretched to about an hour because the pilot had to make two passes at the runway in the fog.
When the flight finally landed, after numerous moments of severe turbulence, those on board broke into a round of applause and nervous laughter.
