Reporters covering the Bloc campaign are already feeling like they’ve heard everything the leader has to say:

• "It’s better to stand up in Opposition than be on your knees in government."
• "We may have been around for 18 years but the Liberals and Conservatives have been there for 141!"

So, there was a flutter of excitement when the Bloc announced they would be revealing a Conservative scandal this afternoon.

At the 2 p.m. news conference, Gilles Duceppe said Stephen Harper had once promised a clean government if he came to power. Instead, he said, Canadians have seen the Couillard-Bernier affair, the scandal over alleged vote buying with Chuck Cadman and the Mulroney-Schreiber affair.

Then, he said, that back in 2005, Harper talked about accountability and cleaning up government. But now, Harper has Michael Coates, president of Hill & Knowlton working on the Conservative campaign, on debate preparation and negotiations. Coates is a volunteer.

The Bloc leader said Coates’s firm is a powerful lobbying force, and acts for companies like Bell. For the prime minister to have such a close relationship with him is either a conflict of interest or gives the appearance of conflict.

For its part, the Bloc says it used staffers to negotiate the terms of the debates. But Duceppe said he can’t say for sure that not a single lobbyist is working somewhere on the campaign.

— Nancy Wood

— Nancy Wood