Sorbara: Yes, I was the Gary Ewing of the family

After Greg Sorbara’s resignation in October, I blogged that his claim of non-involvement with the family real estate business was somewhat at odds with his self-description as a “successful businessman” when running in a 2001 by-election to return to the Ontario Legislature (see “Greg Sorbara: ‘successful businessman’ or Gary Ewing?).

On March 13, the Globe published this (subscription required), in a story about Sorbara’s attempt to have a court remove his name from RCMP warrants executed on his family’s business premises last fall:

Even though he received a salary of $40,000 a year from Sorbara Group, he said his older brothers, Edward and Joseph, made it clear "that I ought not to contemplate becoming involved in the management and direction of 'their' business," Mr. Sorbara says in the court document.

By the time he became president of the Ontario Liberal Party in 1999, he had sold off the baseball and carpet investments and began devoting most of his time to politics.

One so rarely gets a straight answer to the question, “were you lying then, or are you lying now?” I guess this settles it; he was lying then – when he was asking his neighbours for their vote in 2001.