Ottawa

‘Legacy rules!’

The mayor of Huntsville draws the operative lesson from the G8 Legacy Fund affair.

He says he considers the emails to be private conversations and he’ll use the phone in future to avoid leaving a record of such discussions … “To me, these emails are conversation … but they’re in a form that’s now reproduceable,” he said. “I guess we’re all going to go back to telephones.”

In an interview with The Weekender last week, Tony Clement defended himself thusly.

Just a month before the summit, Doughty wrote in an email: “Tony we nailed that one! Through my darkest hours you were there for me. A great day for Huntsville. A great day for Canada. Legacy rules!”

Clement responded: “Great work Claude. We have changed our community for the ages!!”

Clement told the Weekender that every penny related to the $45.7 million spent in the riding has been accounted for. “That’s the essence of the issue for me. I know it’s titillating for Ottawa media to go over the details of my relationship with Claude Doughty but I made no bones of the fact, nor should any MP, about having a solid working relationship with his or her mayors,” he shot back.

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