The Pay Off
For all the talk about patronage appointments and cronieism when the CPoC were on the Opposition side of the house things haven’t actually changed much now that they are in power.
Mr. Pablo Rodriguez (Honoré-Mercier, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives have misled Canadians many times, and have done so once again with their orgy of patronage appointments.
They said they wanted to put a stop to cronyism, but their actions suggest the opposite.
Who is the new consul general in Boston? None other than the former Conservative finance minister, Neil Leblanc.
Who is the new negotiator in the land claims file? The Mulroney-era former Conservative minister, Harvie Andre. It must be pure coincidence that his son-in-law sits on the executive in the riding of the minister responsible.
New judge in Alberta? No problem, they called upon the former money man for the Reform and Alliance parties, Bruce MacDonald, whose daughter just happens to work in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Summit of la Francophonie? Why not pay for a vacation for Gilles Bernier, the father of the current Minister of Industry and a former Conservative MP?
The Conservatives are breaking one promise after another. At this rate, they will soon have no promises left to break and will have to invent new promises so they can break them, too.
Canadians will remember this.
Hon. Robert Thibault (West Nova, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are not telling Canadians the truth about the big fat contracts they give to their cronies.
Mike Harris’ President of the Treasury Board awarded quite a hefty contract to a good Conservative like Marie-Josée Lapointe. He then tells us the contract was cancelled, but not before giving her half the money.
The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development awarded quite a hefty contract to a former Conservative minister, Harvie Andre. How much is the contract worth? The minister tries to reassure us by saying that it was just a measly $50,000, but his own government’s web site says it was more like half a million dollars.
The Prime Minister, the worst of them all, made an offer his campaign manager in Quebec could not refuse: a seat in the Senate and the keys to PWGSC.
When it comes to hefty contracts for Conservative cronies, Canadians know that this government is not telling them the truth.
Oh come yea friends [and relatives, and friends of friends and relatives] of the party in power to the government trough where your hard work and dedication to the party will now surely be rewarded.
– they’re all the same
Ya see SL, it’s the Liberals who are holding them to account!!!
If you love transparent democracy and accountability, you gotta go with the Liberals.
Seriously though, this is pretty bad. Even worse than before.
The Liberals are holding them accountable? Worse than before? No on both counts. What the Liberals are doing is complaining about the CPoC doing just exactly what they were doing while they were in power…. the rightious anger of a party pissed off at the fact that it is not their friends, their relatives, and their friends of friends and relatives, getting to feed at the trough.
Exactly. Cronism works on both sides of that fence.
Adrian MacNair, on October 18th, 2006 at 7:23 pm, said:
Exactly. Cronism works on both sides of that fence.
Anyone who thought it would be different are fools. It happens in every govt. regardless of ideology. The NDP would do the same. It’s the nature of the political beast.
So, what are we going to actually do to hold these bozos accountable? What can we do?
That’s what I want to know.
Also, I’d really like to hear some truth about monetary support getting to our troops. That’s my #1 question as a concerned Canadian and a staunch supporter of our troops.
Is the money and supplies getting to our boots on the ground and to the various Afghan aid projects, or not?
Simple question.
The QP dance is getting repetitive, and no one else in any position to know are not talking (except for some hapless generals and such).
Time for all the cronies to speak up or give up their seats.
So, what are we going to actually do to hold these bozos accountable? What can we do?
Set stricter quidelines, enforce them and actually start throwing peoples asses in jail when they break them.
Won’t stop it completely, but it might make people think twice.
“Anyone who thought it would be different are fools.”
I think a fair number of the better conservative bloggers I read during the campaing thought it would be different. Either that, or they lied through their teeth. I prefer to believe they were as deceived as the reset of us.
“So, what are we going to actually do to hold these bozos accountable? What can we do?”
Keep tossing them out on their arses election after election. Maybe then they will get the picture. It is doubtful.
At least with the Liberals after 13 years of power the whole process of cronyism was so well entrenched it was assumed. The present cabal promised, yes promised to be different. They have even plastered every government communciation with the propoganda nonsense “new government” implying that they are somehow above the fray and different. Hah!
I love the whole “New Government” marketing exercise. It’s so wonderfully, cynically shallow, so obviously the output of a high priced focus group reimaging/rebranding session, and so ineptly deployed (including the dismissal of the poor bureaucrat who had the gall to laugh at it).
I hope the “New Government” goes the way of “New Coke”…and quickly.
I never thought of it in the “new coke” light. That definitely brought me my morning smile. Thanks.
“new government” is so blatantly obvious and redundant to be laughable if it was not such a ridiculous propoganda exercise at the taxpayer’s expense. These bafoons would have been livid, and in fact were when the Libs attempted similarly questionable campaigns like “take the one tonne challenge”.
Nothing “new” to see here at all.
Here’s an idea Locusta emersonia, don’t vote for a party, if you are currently a party member leave the party, spoil your ballot at each and every election, write a nice little note on the ballot explaining why you have done so, write your MP and the PMO and ask them why the right to refuse a ballot recommendation has not been implemented in the elections act, do not participate in the sham that pretends to enforce the will of the people, start a blog and expose their hypocrisy in as public a way as you can – and make sure that they know why you are doing it.
Hey SL, we really do need to have a sarcasm indicator here.
Of course I know the Liberals did very much the same thing. That’s why I added a “Seriously though”.
I may be young and naive, but I’m not THAT young and naive.