From a source sympathetic to the NDP, so take it for what it is… “Sask Finance Minister Andrew Thompson is going to resign tomorrow.”
Related to this? I have no idea.
An investigation into who leaked details of this year’s provincial budget to the media has failed to come up with answers, so the government is going to try again.
The March 22 budget introduced a $15 cap on seniors’ prescriptions, a post-secondary tuition freeze and a tax holiday for recent grads — details that the Regina Leader-Post reported days earlier.
The government launched an internal investigation to try to find out who leaked the information, but the result, according to Finance Minister Andrew Thomson, was “inconclusive.”
CTV reported that the investigation will now centre on party insiders – the Finance MInister seemed genuinely concerned in the news clip. Whether or not this rumoured resignation comes to pass, keep an eye on this story.
UPDATE – via radio, confirming this morning that Thompson won’t be seeking re-election.
Why the investigation? I thought the NDP believed these people are not criminals, but were just whistle blowers?
Al
It’s the level,Al. Rat on and/or leak goodies on anybody else, you’re a good little whistle-blower. Blow the lid off of a scandal, or leak something about YOUR party, why, you are a criminal!. Love the hypocracy.And let me say it works this way for ALL parties,before some poor little leftard/dipper blows their only remaining brain cell.
Scandal, confusion, and rumor in an election year: these guys are a mess and almost certainly finished. I can’t foresee what Andrew Thompson’s going to do, but I will predict that it won’t be long before the media start doing tabloid-style hatchet stories on the presumed government in waiting: remember the famous CBC documentary on Stockwell Day just before the 2000 election? Conservatism! Fundamentalism! Save our Social Programs! You might even look for a global warming angle to be inserted into the smear, it being the flavor of the month.
Is this where we all get together under a street light and sing “Another one bites the dust” ? So when will he move to Alberta and go to work for an oil company in the grand tradition of ex NDP ministers?
NDP…facts? what facts?
– I see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing…
Sgt. Schultz would be proud.
Would it all be OK if the leaker, joined an anarchist cell, called a mega-news conference, and declared the whole thing a “witch hunt”?
Has there been any further confirmation of this rumour? If so, this story is big news in Saskatchewan. Andrew Thompson was clearly being groomed by the NDP as the successor to Lorne Calvert. If Thompson goes there is no heir apparent, and the end of the dynasty is in sight.
Election now please?
where is albatroll39?
I have heard that Thompson’s ego was too big to be an opposition MLA and faced with a big name Sask Party candidate in Regina South, he decided to go on hiatus till Leisure Suit Lorne gets the boot from his caucus. Rest assured he will magically re-appear to run for the leadership in a few years if not sooner. If we think Lorne is a scary leader, watch out for this guy!
Kate, I think it has more to do with this,
Sask Party high in polls
Paul a good friend of mine mentioned the same thing to me yesterday. I don’t see why you’d leave and then come back.
Bill Hutchinson
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2007/05/11/thomson-not-running.html
Calvert says he is going to wait until the fall to call an election. I image he believes that his summer tour will save him.
Judging by the way the MSM is attacking the Sask Party, I think a June election is still possible.
There probably is a scandal lurking regarding the budget leak. Thompson is going on the offensive and performing damage control before the lid blows off. Convenient, considering that the report will come back over the parliamentary summer break.
Thompson is an NDP lifer who lives and breathes Socialist doctrine. I would bet there is more behind his quick resignation than simply a desire to enter the private sector.
The NDP must be near death when even the most devoted disciples jump ship!
It is no wonder Thompson is headed for the exit doors. After all he just delivered what has to be one of the most embarrasing budgets in our province’s history. Here we are in boom times and this guy hands us a deficit budget in excess of half a billion dollars. Say goodnight, Andrew.