POLITICAL ROT SPREADS ITS ROOTS AGAIN

Erstwhile solicitor general Kash Heed may not have known anything
about some truly sleazy election campaign leaflets that were
distributed to a specific ethnicity in his Vancouver-Fraserview riding
the dying days of the May 2009 provincial election.

Heed says he had nothing to do with the printing and distribution of
the leaflets, which were sent to Chinese-Canadian voters and claimed
the NDP would legalize drugs and prostitution and install an
inheritance tax if elected.

The scare-mongering material did not identify who authorized it, which
is illegal. Therefore, Elections BC banned the flyers - but not before
many reached their intended audience.

NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu, who lost the election to Heed by less than
800 votes, firmly believes the mailout was organized by malevolent
Liberals and timed so his campaign team would not have time to
respond. He may be right.

A Richmond company, North America Mailing, arranged for the flyers to
be delivered through the mail. The owner of the firm is Dinesh Khanna.

The Vancouver Sun has identified his son as Amit Khanna, who worked on
Heed's campaign.

For some reason, the elder Khanna will not divulge who paid for the
distribution of the material.

That silence speaks volumes.

Heed may have won the election via legitimate votes at the ballot
box.

But it appears as though his victory may have been aided by the
sleaziest of politics, by an unfounded smear campaign that contributes
to the rot in politics that never seems to go out of style, regardless
of the party banner behind such reprehensible behaviour.

If it emerges that Heed's campaign staff was behind the perverse
political power play (and need we really add an "if"?), it behooves
the former solicitor general to step down and create a byelection so
that he and Yiu can square off in a fair election fight - regardless
of whether he knew about the dirty tricks.

Heed speaks often of his accomplishments as leader of the West
Vancouver Police Department. He should know, then, that a leader rises
and falls on the merits, or lack thereof, of his soldiers.

Will Heed ultimately show the class and honour that is so often
missing in politics today?

Will his leader, Premier Gordon Campbell, insist on it, once the
origins of this sordid mess are revealed?