"If he asks Canadians to wait ... before they can pass judgment on him and his government, why didn't he wait for the Gomery report before he fired me (in February, 2004)?" Alfonso is not happy. And -- well, he has a point. That's not the only double standard, he complains:

"We're showing to Quebecers the bad things that happened during this sponsorship program... but there's no inquiry in the other side," he said, suggesting Quebec's then-separatist provincial government spent five times more. "Right now, we're just looking on one side and that is helping the separatist movement to gain momentum," Gagliano added. "If Quebecers would know what the separatist government in Quebec did in those same years, on the same files, they would be more outrageous.

Indeed:

The Gomery inquiry heard yesterday that, while in power, the Parti Quebecois also played the sponsorship game. Former advertising executive Diane Deslauriers testified that the PQ government doubled its sponsorship offer to organizers of the 2001 Quebec Games from $150,000 to $300,000 in return for exclusive government advertising rights at the games, effectively shutting out the federal government.