Don't Play With Fire, Harper Tells Critics

Mr. Mulroney, the former Conservative prime minister, has been at the centre of a political furor this week over revelations in The Globe and Mail that he was late in paying taxes on $300,000 in cash received in 1993 and 1994 from Mr. Schreiber, an Airbus lobbyist. In a response to opposition calls for a public inquiry into the controversy, Mr. Harper needled the Liberals, suggesting that if he launched an inquiry in this case, he would be tempted to take another look at controversies that plagued former Liberal prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. Mr. Chrétien came under fire over federal funding that went to a golf course next to a hotel in which he had once had a financial interest, while Mr. Martin was accused of promoting the interests of his company, Canada Steamship Lines. "This suggestion that a government would use its authority ... to launch politically driven inquiries into its political opponents is extremely dangerous," Mr. Harper said. The Liberals say Mr. Mulroney should have divulged his dealings with Mr. Schreiber - a key figure in the Airbus affair - before accepting a $2.1-million award from the federal government in 1997 to settle a defamation lawsuit. In the 1996 hearings that preceded the settlement, Mr. Mulroney played down his relationship with Mr. Schreiber, saying he had only had coffee once or twice with him after leaving office. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071103.HARPER03/TPStory/National

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