Bloc recruits former federal investigator
Last Updated: Friday, September 4, 2009 | 2:37 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Daniel Paillé, a former federal investigator, is seeking a Bloc nomination. (CBC)The man hired by Stephen Harper to investigate federal spending in the 1990s now plans to run for the Bloc Québécois.
The sovereigntist party has announced its star recruit Daniel Paillé at a news conference.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said Paillé will become an economic advisor in his office while also seeking a nomination to run for the party in the next election.
Paillé hopes to land the Bloc nomination in Montreal's Hochelaga riding.
When he was appointed in 2007 and given a $1-million budget to examine the polling practices of the former Liberal government, Harper's opponents screamed conflict of interest.
They complained that Paillé — a former Parti Québécois provincial minister who worked on the Yes side in the 1995 Quebec referendum — had been granted unfettered access to the books of his federal opponents.
In the end, though, Paillé's report was mild on the ex-Liberal government and actually slammed the Conservatives for getting carried away with public-opinion polling.
Duceppe and Paillé both say his previous work as a federal investigator posed no conflict of interest.
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