Victory for the Right ! Woo-Hoo !

Don't know what's the best way to cook crow -- boiled, broiled, barbecued, sauteed, roasted -- feathers off, feathers on -- but it's a sure bet that more than a few in this town are dining on that particular dish tonight following Justice Douglas Cunningham's "Not Guilty" verdict in Mayor Larry O'Brien's influence peddling trial today.

Citizen Ellie always believed it was a set-up. That Mayor Larry was a marked man from the get-go -- the day he announced he was seeking the mayor's chair. A self-made millionaire, a man who knew what it meant to meet a payroll, a man who expressed concern about the tax and spend mentality prevalent at city hall, a man from the right of the political spectrum -- his candidacy didn't sit well with the lefties who've run things for far too long in this town.

But their hand-picked candidate coudn't defeat him at the polls. So another way had to be found.

Rumor, innuendo, media manipulation, speculation about election misconduct -- these became the weapons of their sneaky game. And it was fun while it lasted. But it went too far.

Ottawa and District Labor Council boss Sean McKenny suddenly found himself in posession of an affidavit from one Terry Kilrea. Good heavens ! What to do ? The media was already all over it. The council members who had indicated to McKenny that they were going to move on it failed to act. Sober second thought, perchance ? So McKenny promptly sent it off to the provincial Attorney General and the Municipal Affairs minister. In the affidavit Kilrea alleged that Mayor Larry had promised him a goodie if he dropped out of the mayor's race.

It was interesting to watch McKenny dancing around outside the courthouse after the verdict this morning. No, no, he told TV journalists. He wasn't motivated by the fact Mayor Larry could be contemplating taking a pitchfork to the Augean stable on Laurier Avenue -- with resulting loss of employment to CUPE 503 members. Of course he wasn't. He was just a good citizen, doing what all good citizens should do -- bringing possible wrongdoing to the attention of higher powers. It was also interesting to see McKenny dance around the question of who supplied him with the affidavit in the first place.

Naturally the sending of the affidavit to Queen's Park was the subject of a McKenny news conference. Score another one for Kilrea, who Justice Cunningham referred to as a "master manipulator of the media." Shortly afterwards, fed up with the blizzard of attacks, Mayor Larry dropped his bombshell. Go ahead, he told authorities, Charge me. And so they did.

Mayor Larry has come out of this with his reputation intact. He fought to keep his good name and in the process he gained the respect of many, many Ottawans for the way he handled himself throughout this sad, unfortunate and totally unnecessary exercise. They were the ones doing the cheering when the "Not Guilty" verdict was handed down.

So go ahead -- enjoy your crow dinner tonight you members of council who worked to undermine Mayor Larry from the day he took office. Enjoy your crow dinner tonight, Terry Kilrea and ODLC bosses. Enjoy your crow dinner tonight you employees at city hall who, with bad grace, cheered every time you thought Mayor Larry received a mortal blow during the trial. As for some of Ottawa's major media types who whipped it into a frenzy -- enjoy your crow dinner tonight too.

What did any of you achieve ? Nothing -- except wasting taxpayers' money, not to mention the court's time, on a trial which if nothing else has vindicated the good judgement of the 141,000 Ottawans who voted for Mayor Larry in the first place.

Posting usually on Mondays during the summer months