Alfonso Gagliano was first elected to Parliament in 1984 to represent the old eastern Montreal riding of St. Leonard-Anjou. He was a Jean Chretien loyalist and effective political fundraiser in Quebec. He is an accountant by training.

When the Liberals returned to power in 1993, Gagliano was first made chief government whip. He joined cabinet in 1994 as a junior minister, then was named minister of labour in 1996.

By 1997, he had moved on to become minister of public works and government services, replacing David Dingwall, himself a Chretien loyalist from the Maritimes who had lost his re-election bid. Gagliano was also made Jean Chretien's Quebec lieutenant, thus making him the political boss of the province for the federal Liberals -- and putting his hands on the levers that control federal patronage there.

On Sept. 5, 1997, he and Chretien signed off on the unusual design of the sponsorship program, which would be operated within the Communication Co-ordination and Services Branch (CCSB) of his department. Instead of a program being created, the budget of public works received a $19-million boost that year.

That information came out in cabinet documents that were unsealed and released to the House public accounts committee. Normally Canadians wouldn't have known about the arrangement until Sept. 5, 2027.

According to testimony at Parliamentary hearings on the scandal by Ran Quail, now-retired deputy minister of public works, Gagliano worked directly with civil servant Chuck Guite on the sponsorship program, which cost an average of $50 million per year. Guite headed the CCSB and worked directly with the advertising and communications companies. Quail said he was kept out of the sponsorship file.

Ministers normally interact with deputy ministers.

"The fact of the matter is that at the government political level, they wanted to move forward. The government wanted to see results with respect to sponsorship," said Quail on March 1.

Guite spent most of the winter at an Arizona dude ranch. He testified before the committee on April 22 and 23.

Gagliano was under frequent attack by opposition MPs in 2000 and 2001 for a series of controversies. For example, his department awarded advertising work to Groupaction Marketing Inc. which then subcontracted a firm that employed Gagliano's son Vincenzo. Federal ethics counselor Howard Wilson later cleared Gagliano.

An internal audit released in October 2000 said spending controls on the sponsorship program were poor.

More questions were asked by opposition MPs about advertising contracts and about Gagliano using his power to get jobs for his friends with Crown corporations.

One 2001 controversy was Groupaction being paid $615,000 to evaluate its own performance with regards to the sponsorship program.

On Jan. 10, 2002, the opposition accused Gagliano of interfering with the Canada Lands Corp. in Quebec.

Chretien made him ambassador to Denmark in a January 15, 2002 cabinet shuffle, moving first Don Boudria (who became involved in an ethical scandal of his own, thus losing the job) and then Ralph Goodale into the Public Works portfolio.

On Feb. 10, Gagliano was recalled and fired as ambassador by the new administration of Prime Minister Paul Martin after Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report was released on the sponsorship scandal.

In a March 5 CTV interview, Gagliano, 62, predicted he would be vindicated once all the facts were in.

On his relationship with Guite, he said: "It seems he was doing everything. One person had all the power."

Gagliano also said he was the first one to call for an audit, and only thought the program had some management problems, not criminal ones (eg. false invoices being filed for work that was never done). In some interviews, he has discussed senior bureaucrats talking him out of calling in the police.

Like Chretien did in 2002, Gagliano also referred to the panic in federal circles after the federalists nearly lost the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum: "We had to do something about it, but we never asked people to break the law."