14 February 2004

Face To Face With A Monetary Black Hole

I have heard it said in the past that a house is a hole in the ground into which one pours money. Certainly when one considers the costs of property taxes, homeowners insurance, renovations and the like it isn't difficult to see exactly how this statement is true. But should we be saying things like this about our own government?

Prime Minister Paul Martin is facing a crisis, one that is a clear legacy of the Cretin government. It seems that several millions of dollars of taxpayer money have been misappropriated in a series of federal sponsorship deals. Add to that the recent multi million-dollar price tag of Governor General Adrien Clarkson's recent state tour of the world and it isn't hard to see just how Mr. Martin might be feeling a bit of woe these days.

One the one hand I suppose that I shouldn't be too surprised that this has happened. Our former Prime Minister was the King of Pork Barrel Politics and Patronage Appointments, so it should really come as no surprise that some of his own government officials would be caught with their hands in the cookie jar, nor should it come as a complete surprise that a recent Auditor General investigation into this gross mishandling of public finds was stonewalled by the Cretin government, that the AG wasn't permitted to trace the full extent of the money trail. On the other hand, though, it does come as something of a surprise. Why? Because we're Canadians, that's why, and this is something that I would expect to hear about from our neighbors to the South.

Not meaning to offend my American readership, of course, but corruption in the highest levels of government has long been an established part of American politics. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have a lot of markers out there, and the people holding those markers have been known to call them in from time to time. Indeed, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the vast majority of political maneuvering in the American government occurs in back rooms and lavatories, with no record of the transaction other than a shake of the hand.

But somehow over the years I've gotten accustomed to thinking that we Canadians are better than that, that our dealings are more open and above board. Of course, the debacle known as the Gun Registry was enough to cause some concern, as were the varied and numerous patronage appointments made by our former Prime Minister, but those kinds of things happen and they were really par for the course. I expect a Government Program to be horribly run and full of cost overruns because the primary purpose behind any government program is to pay a standing army called bureaucracy. In that way the government is vaguely reminiscent of NASA, but that's another topic for another time.

What I don't expect to hear about, though, is government officials falsifying invoices in a blatant cash grab. It's illegal, it's unethical, and it's not Canadian, but we're faced with it anyway.

Of course, I myself need to do some more research and investigation before I decide at whose feet I intend to lay blame for this debacle, but I do believe that there is enough information out there now for me to be able to predict one possible outcome of this whole scenario.

The general public is going to become more and more dissatisfied with the leadership of the Federal Liberal Party and the Liberal's track record of blatant patronage and gross overspending and they're going to start looking at alternative parties to form the next government. Even though he deserves a chance to show us all what he can do, the legacy of Jean Cretin will not allow him to lead the next government, which will give the new Conservative Party of Canada the electoral boost they need to take the majority in the next federal election.

My question is, do we want the Conservatives to form the next government?

Think about it. The Conservative party has no leadership at the present time, and there's no indication that whoever they elect as leader (my money is on Belinda Stronach on the grounds that Conservatives are a horny lot and she's got the look) will have the strength and the authority to reign in the divisive elements of this combined party. If the Conservatives win the next election that will give us a majority government that will have all the same divisions as the Progressive Conservative and the Canadian Alliance parties had before the merger. Every single member of parliament will have his or her own ideas of how things should be said and done and we will all be faced with a federal government that has no unity whatsoever.

Do I trust the federal Liberal Party? Hell no, I don't trust them. I never did. I didn't trust them when Turner was in charge and I sure as hell didn't trust them when Cretin was in charge. However, I trust a divided Conservative party a lot less than I do a united Liberal party, and in this case I have to wonder if it's better to stick with the enemy that you know.