HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia politician who was booted from the NDP caucus after questions arose about his spending is accusing Premier Darrell Dexter of orchestrating a smear campaign against him.
Trevor Zinck appeared Monday on a Halifax radio talk show, where he blamed Dexter and the NDP for spreading stories that he racked up a gambling debt on a friend’s credit card.
“They needed to find a bullet,” Zinck told Maritime Morning with Andrew Krystal on News 95.7.
Zinck alleged that the party pressured his friend, Scott Marshall, to tell the media that he had used Marshall’s credit card to run up $10,000 in online gambling bills.
Zinck said he did not use Marshall’s credit card without his knowledge.
Marshall, a 40-year-old with cerebral palsy, has said Zinck admitted in 2007 that he spent thousands on the credit card when he was Marshall’s caregiver.
Marshall said he had lent him the card when Zinck asked to borrow $100. He said they’d been friends for a long time and he trusted Zinck, but didn’t realize that it would be used for gambling.
Marshall said Zinck had repaid some of the money, but allegedly still owes him about $7,600.
But Zinck said Monday that he had gambled online at his home with Marshall in the past and felt that he paid back what was owed, although he didn’t mention the amount.
“I am willing to and have paid back anything that we agreed upon, in my opinion,” Zinck said.
Zinck, who represents the constituency of Dartmouth North, also alleged that Dexter wanted to dismiss him from the party because Zinck didn’t think the NDP was doing enough to combat poverty.
“There was an opportunity to get rid of me,” he said. “It also sends a strong message to those other backbenchers to toe the line, do not go against one, because we are all expendable.”
The NDP kicked Zinck out of its caucus last month, saying it lost trust in him after he had been reimbursed for unpaid bills in his constituency office.
He said he’d been late in paying constituency office bills for electricity, telephone and Internet because of a turnover in his office staff and because he had to assist in the care of his ailing father.
Zinck, who had refused to comment on Marshall’s allegation last week in the legislature, declined to speak to reporters after his talk show appearance.
“I’ve said all that I’m going to say,” he said. “In the interview I was fortunate enough to have an hour to express my concerns and that’s it.”
Marshall wasn’t available for comment. But Marshall’s father said his son had never gambled with Zinck and that there was no NDP pressure to come out with the story.
“He’s running around in circles,” Greg MacLeod said of Zinck.
“When all this (gambling allegations) started why didn’t he just stop it if there wasn’t any basis to it ... instead of running and hiding for a week to give himself some time to figure out an escape route?”
Marshall has said he had only gone public after a news outlet contacted his mother.
He said then that he had never been contacted by anybody involved in the party. His mother said she hadn’t informed the NDP of her son’s claim.
