At public meetings launching the Cullen commission into money laundering, some denounced former provincial solicitor-general Rich Coleman as if he were a Great Satan — an avatar of all the Liberal failures.
After two years of investigation, Coleman on Wednesday left the commission’s online witness window having proven why he was re-elected often and a senior minister for so long. His critics must have been deflated.
Forget about no smoking gun, Coleman sounded confident, forthright and in command of the issues he confronted as a cabinet minister for nearly two decades — especially about dirty money.
The former deputy premier from 2013 to 2017 said it was ridiculous that anyone believed his party was willfully blind to criminal activity in casinos, or that the government was more concerned about revenue.