A MYSTERY: One thing I'd like to know is why the Liberals and/or their bureaucratic co-conspirators were so anxious to conceal their use of the Toronto advertising agency Gingko Group to promote the 2000 federal-provincial health care agreement -- one of two contracts for which Paul Coffin served as a front. I understand why they used Coffin in the other case, involving a highly sensitive file -- the Clarity Act -- and a notoriously Liberal agency called BCP. But Gingko has no particular history of involvement with the Liberal party, so far as I am aware. Indeed, if anything it seems to have more Tory connections, at least at the provincial level. According to the Auditor-General's report,

the PCO [Privy Council Office] explained to us that it wanted a particular agency, The Gingko Group, to design and produce the campaign because the agency had produced a similar campaign for a provincial government and had been highly recommended. However, Gingko had not been selected as an assigned agency for the CIO [Canada Information Office] through a competitive process.

So, naturally, they faked it, issuing a $619,000 contract to Communication Coffin, who then subcontracted all the work to Gingko. Was this just a matter of laziness: They liked Gingko's work, but couldn't be bothered complying with the regulation requiring a competitive tender? Maybe -- but to the point that they'd be willing to commit fraud to get around it? To promote a health care deal? Why were they so determined that it had to be Gingko? And why were they so afraid of this being discovered? I'm sure there's a perfectly innocent explanation.