Frankly, this concerns me more than the silly Tory ads

Stephane Dion has a squeeky clean image. No one in their right mind would doubt his personal integrity. But politics makes for strange bedfellows, last week it was the union guy who donated money to him, endorsed his leadership and oh yeah, got busted for smuggling 130 lbs of coke across the border in a - wait for the irony - knapsack.

This week it's former LPC (BC) president Jamie Elmhirst, under subpoena for over three months to testify in the upcoming breach of trust trial of former provincial government aides David Basi and Bob Virk who only resigned his position January 15. This means that Elmhirst was subpoenaed by police on October 4, 2006, long before the LPC Convention in Montreal.

Vancouver media reports that his letter of resignation to the party made no mention of the subpoena, insisting that he was leaving to concentrate on his business and upcoming wedding.

On Dec. 28, 2003, the same day police searched the B.C. Legislature and other locations, a search warrant was executed on Pilothouse offices. The charges allege that David Basi and Virk were bribed to provide confidential information on the $1-billion privatization of BC Rail to Bornmann, who was a lobbyist for OmniTRAX, one of the bidders.

When asked if he informed the Liberal Party of Canada that he had been subpoenaed to testify in the Basi-Virk trial, Elmhirst said: "I don't have any comment on that."

And when people start keeping things like that to themselves, if one were to put this in the mix, the leader looks bad by association. Elmhirst should have known better and the leader will need to deal sternly with this.