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Ben Mulroney vs. Norman Spector: Twitter Fight Breaks Out Between Host And Father's Former Aide

Posted: 04/ 4/2012 1:19 pm Updated: 04/ 4/2012 6:24 pm

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Ben Mulroney Norman Spector Twitter
Ben Mulroney and Norman Spector have got themselves into an old-fashioned Twitter fight. (CP)

OTTAWA - The eldest son of former prime minister Brian Mulroney has taken to Twitter to defend his dad.

The back-and-forth between Ben Mulroney and Norman Spector, his father's one-time chief of staff, started with a tweet.

Spector mused about whether Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives and Jean Chretien's Liberals cut a quiet deal over a generous retirement allowance for prime ministers.

The musing followed interim Liberal leader Bob Rae's comment that Mulroney's government changed the Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act just as he was leaving office so that prime ministers would get the equivalent of two-thirds of his or her salary at age 65.

In fact, the retirement allowance for prime ministers was actually brought in under the Liberal government of Lester Pearson and later revised under Pierre Trudeau. The Grits have since apologized for the mistake.

In response to Spector's musing, Mulroney tweeted: "@nspector4 Another 'secret deal' that didn't exist. Thank, Norm."

To which Spector replied: "Facts are facts @BenMulroney1976."

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Mulroney posted a link to an iPolitics.ca story that clarified that the retirement allowance was Pearson's policy, not his father's.

"For your reading pleasure, @nspector4," Mulroney tweeted.

Spector replied he may have been the first person to post a link to the iPolitics.ca story.

"@nspector4 I just saw that you tweeted it," Mulroney replied. "Too bad it didn't include a retraction of your insinuation of a "secret deal". #researchisdead."

Spector wrote that he was only raising a quiet deal as a possible explanation for the "peculiar absence" of media coverage of the retirement allowance in 1992 and that he "tweeted real explanation 2 hours ago."

"@nspector4 Well, wild unsubstantiated accusations is certainly one way to go," Mulroney responded. "How that jives with your 'facts are facts' mantra is beyond me."

Mulroney, a television personality, fired off one last tweet: "@nspector4 .... but what do I know, I'm just a game show host."

"No accusation just a question," Spector wrote back. "As soon as facts established by iPolitics (which broke story few days ago) tweeted it @BenMulroney1976."

This is the second time in less than a month that Mulroney has publicly stood up for his dad.

The Toronto Star published a letter last month in which he disputed a columnist's claim that his father stepped down in 1993 rather than face an election because his poll numbers were low. Mulroney pointed to a Globe and Mail story showing the Tories and Liberals were in a dead heat in August 1993.

"If (columnist Bob) Hepburn's claim is to be swallowed, the numbers stated above must be ignored," Mulroney wrote.

"But when it comes to the Star, denigrating a particular Progressive Conservative prime minister often trumps the truth."

Maclean's magazine political editor Paul Wells spotted the letter and tweeted that Mulroney was using a poll from the early days of Tory prime minister Kim Campbell's leadership to prove his father was well-loved.

"Not once did I suggest be was popular when he resigned Paul. It would be foolish to do so," Mulroney tweeted back.

"I suggested that Bob's contention that the people were so fed up that they booted the PCs from office doesn't hold water. Undo unsurprising given source."

MULRONEY vs. SPECTOR


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OTTAWA - The eldest son of former prime minister Brian Mulroney has taken to Twitter to defend his dad.The back-and-forth between Ben Mulroney and Norman Spector, his father's one-time chief of staff,...
OTTAWA - The eldest son of former prime minister Brian Mulroney has taken to Twitter to defend his dad.The back-and-forth between Ben Mulroney and Norman Spector, his father's one-time chief of staff,...
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xwho
16 Fans
10:44 AM on 05/04/2012
Oh those Mulroney years...those were the years we Canadians were all hit with the Blarney Stone, and the little leprechan was secretly taking money from under the table at a restaurant, like $300,000...........but that was only a fairy tale. One of Mulroney's many.
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Dave Cada
3 Fans
 
08:07 PM on 04/05/2012
Wow, at least Ben got one thing right, he's just a game show host. Only reason he got there was because of his crooked father's fame. He has no talent, and his father was a crook. Ben should keep his mouth from flapping and ride his free gravy train. Never have I or any one else I ever came across have thought that Ben had any talent. I have met him up close and literally I had to ask myself, how can I guy live with himself knowing that he got his break because of his father, who ripped off the Canadian tax-payer, sued and won in courts and then everyone found out he lied and still got to keep the money. Really, if you listen to him talk, his voice is not only nauseating but its easy to see he lacks talent. Could you imagine him in a movie or in a actual TV show, acting. Now thats a joke. Guaranteed, the show would crash and burn on the first episode. Sorry, but as Ben said, he's just a game show host, nothing more. He should be thanking god that at least he's got a job for now. (someone paid off someone for him to be there probably). Stay out of politics, before you really unveil your dad's big secrets.
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Liban CZ
329 Fans
08:18 PM on 04/06/2012
YOUR daddy did not help you much? EH?
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Dave Cada
3 Fans
 
08:55 PM on 04/06/2012
Didn't need him too. Quite capable on my own. Its what I told my father when I walk out the door when I was seventeen. He told me everything on my back was his, so I told him to keep everything and walked out the door at seventeen. By twenty, I owned my first house, finished school, went on and graduated with honors and became a writer. I did what my father told me to do when I was a child, and that was to accomplish things on my own so nobody can throw anything in your face later on. Nothing better than knowing what you did, you did on your own merits and not because you have a rich crooked father who abused his power. How do you say it, oh yeah, a silver spoon stuck in your ass.
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PortlandZoo
Wait... what?
2274 Fans
01:27 PM on 04/05/2012
oh how cute! little ben is trying to be relevant.
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Liban CZ
329 Fans
08:20 PM on 04/06/2012
loves his daddy- simple.
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brianmouland
25 Fans
 
02:00 AM on 04/05/2012
Charlie Angus, you were so right about Twitter
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tam2128
6 Fans
08:50 PM on 04/04/2012
The younger mulroney is a no-talent spoiled, rotten kid who has everything to lose if he questions his 'father's truth'. The 'paper bag under the table cash payments from schreiber' money is bound to be part of brian's will. BM wants to be sure he is locked in to the 'gravey train inheritance' before old brian 'kicks the bucket'. The real crime is allowing bm to abuse the People Of Canada by appearing on broadcast television w/o a scrap of talent. For shame.
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poster boy
22 Fans
06:46 PM on 04/04/2012
Of course Ben Mulroney defends his dad. From reading his "journalistic" pieces early in his career to watching the no-talent, no-charisma job he does on camera, it's obvious that only family influence got him his job. Uh oh ... I feel a tweet coming.
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Liz Wilson 2
“a small group can change the world
330 Fans
04:23 PM on 04/04/2012
Ben was a kid back then and Spector was at the center of the action. While Ben might not like what he hears, the reality is that it probably is true.
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Liban CZ
329 Fans
04:22 PM on 04/04/2012
WHY is Rae still in the government?
Could it be, MONEY, PENSION, etc...
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LDW
73 Fans
03:55 PM on 04/04/2012
Brian Mulroney is a crook and a liar, and owes Canadians millions of dollars and a apology.
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King Stevie Harper
84 Fans
03:08 PM on 04/04/2012
Of course Ben, doesn't mention of the bags of cash his daddy took under the table from Schreiber and the $2 million he took from taxpayers for a false libel claim about it since he later admitted he did take the money and was therefore lying under oath, so should have been charged with perjury, lets see tweets about that. Here is a new game show for you Ben "Lets Make a Secret Dea and Lie About It"
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island cynic
77 Fans
 
07:47 AM on 04/05/2012
I know that show, it is now playing at a house of parliament near you. Only the names have changed.
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