Two staffers bragged about their op in an Ottawa bar. No one got fired. Liberal party denies involvement.

Let’s stop pretending. Let’s not sanitize this. Let’s not call it a “prank” or a “gag gone too far.” This wasn’t some intern-run-amok moment of political comedy.

This was a coordinated smear campaign. And it tells you everything you need to know about the people running the Liberal Party of Canada under Mark Carney.

Here’s what actually happened — not the spin, not the statement, not the sugarcoating.

On Friday night, in Ottawa — the beating heart of the Canadian political swamp — Two Liberal Party staffers — highly-paid operatives, not summer interns fetching lattes — snuck into a conservative political conference, the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference. What did they do? Did they show up to learn something? Ask questions? Challenge policy?

No. They planted buttons. Buttons. Little propaganda trinkets designed to mock Pierre Poilievre and his supporters — and to equate everyday conservatives with American-style insurrectionists.

Why? Because that’s all the Liberal brain trust can come up with in 2025. That’s their campaign strategy: petty sabotage with novelty pins and hope the press catches wind.

This wasn’t subtle. It wasn’t accidental. They distributed these buttons in places they knew attendees would find them. It was brazen political sabotage. And then — here’s the kicker — they went to a bar, D’Arcy McGee’s, just a stone’s throw from Parliament Hill, and bragged about it.

This wasn’t behind closed doors. It wasn’t whispered in secret. It was out loud, at a public bar, with other Liberal staffers — including war room personnel — present. One of the staffers involved even identified himself as part of the opposition research team. He said it, plainly, within earshot of a journalist.

He knew he was talking to the press. He didn’t care. Because this is the kind of culture that now exists inside the Liberal Party — smug, unaccountable, totally convinced the rules don’t apply to them.

And what happened when he realized CBC was going to report it?

He backtracked. He lied. He denied it. Because that’s the second half of the Liberal playbook: if exposed, deny everything. Gaslight the public. Blame the other side. And hope the media plays along.

But — to CBC’s credit — they didn’t this time. For once, they did their job.

So what did the Liberal Party do?

Statement From Bryan Passifiume @BryanPassifiume

Let’s not waste time pretending this statement is anything other than what it is: a prewritten excuse for premeditated political sabotage — dressed up in hollow slogans about “positive campaigning.”

“This is the most important election in a generation…”

Yes, and your response to that historic moment is to sneak into your opponent’s conference and scatter cheap smear buttons like you’re running a middle school prank war. They invoke the economy as if that justifies juvenile political sabotage. What does placing fake “Stop the Steal” buttons at a conservative event do to lower grocery prices or stop carbon taxes from hollowing out rural communities?

Answer: nothing.

“It’s been reported that Liberal campaigners had created buttons poking fun… which regrettably got carried away.”

Hold it right there.

Let’s not pretend this was spontaneous. These buttons didn’t magically appear in the hands of two bored staffers looking for something to do. They had to be designed, produced, and delivered. That takes time. That takes planning. That takes sign-off from someone higher up. This wasn’t some joke that “got carried away” — it was a deliberate, coordinated, premeditated attack.

This is not what “regrettably got carried away” looks like. This is what an organized political dirty trick looks like.

“While it is worth noting that many materials being shown online have nothing to do with members of our team…”

Nothing to do with members of our team… Did they really just run with that. Beacuse this didn’t happen in a vacuum. It happened in Ottawa, the swampiest part of Canada, where everyone knows everyone. The press, the staffers, the strategists, the spin doctors — they all eat at the same bars. They all go to the same parties. They all protect each other when it counts.

So when the CBC says, “a Liberal staffer identified himself,” let’s be real: they already knew who he was. That’s how it works in Ottawa. If you’re in the bubble, you’re protected. Unless — like now — it becomes politically impossible to ignore.

To the CBC’s credit, they did report it. And for that, they deserve a rare tip of the hat. But let’s not pretend this was some anonymous tip they had to dig for. This scandal practically unfolded over cocktails in front of their own reporters. This wasn’t Woodward and Bernstein. This was a Liberal staffer too arrogant to realize he was caught.

And still, after all that, the Liberal Party thinks you’re dumb enough to buy their story.

That you’ll believe this was all just a “prank.”
That no one at the top knew.
That the campaign of Mark Carney — the man selling himself as the adult in the room — is shocked, just shocked, that his team would stoop to this.

This was premeditated. This was planned. And the only reason it’s “regrettable” now is because they got caught.

So I’ll ask the question again: Do you think we can do better than this?

Because the answer is yes. And come April 28, Canadians might finally show the Liberal Party what accountability actually looks like.