Auditor-General’s report

martingesture.jpgThe Auditor-General’s report came out Tuesday afternoon and it is quite damning to the Liberal Party. Auditor-General described Liberal government abuses as ‘outrageous’. The word ‘fraud’ appears in the document detailing the $250 million in advertising programs and sponsorships that were channeled through Liberal party supporters who had a take-home share of $100 million.

Now 13 cases involving these payments are now under criminal investigation by the RCMP, who, ironically, did not escape controvery within the report.

“This is just such a blatant misuse of public funds. It is shocking … Words escape me,” — Sheila Fraser, Auditor-General

Today, Paul Martin responded to the report saying that he had nothing to do with it. He claims that a “sophisticated” group of insiders was responsible for the “fraud” as Ms. Fraser labeled it in her report.

Indeed, about $100 million was paid to Liberal Party donors and their advertising companies. This totals 40% of the advertising budget which was intended to boost Canada’s image in Quebec after the 1995 referendum on sovereignty there.

In one case, a Liberal advertising firm netted commission for handling a transaction between the federal government and a crown corporation. Hardly necessary for passing a cheque within the same organization.

Paul Martin, who was finance minister at the time, defended against wrongdoing by declaring that he didn’t know what was going on.

Are we to believe that $100 million gets passed between the coffers of the federal government and Liberal Party supporters without the minister of finance knowing about it? If that’s the case, Paul Martin had failed as finance minister. The most basic job of the minister of finance is to balance the books. Doesn’t a $100 million discrepancy jump off the page? The other scenario, of course, involves Paul Martin’s cognizance of what was happening, in which case he is also at fault.

So now the Liberal party and members of the Paul Martin’s federal government will now be under criminal investigation for fraud yet they are already guilty for violating the trust of the Canadian people.

“This is so outrageous, what happened here, I don’t know how anybody can take this lightly,” — Sheila Fraser

Dear editors,

The following is the letter that I submitted in response to an editorial that appeared in my university’s campus newspaper, the Queen’s Journal.

Dear editors,

I am writing in response to the editorial titled “Stronach a contender, barely” (Feb 6, 2004). As the first paragraph unfolded in your editorial it became apparent where your bias may lie concerning Belinda Stronach. An editorial is an opinion, of course, but it does not excuse being misinformed.

Your editorial labels Stronach as weak on policy initiatives. This assertion couldn’t be further from the truth. As a new face in Canadian politics, her opinions and stances on policies have been questioned (and answered) the moment that she announced. Where Stronach takes an unambiguous stance on an issue (more funding and equipment for Canada’s military), Paul Martin says that he’s “reviewing” it. Concerning the military, Paul Martin need not look further than a study by Queen’s own Douglas Bland to understand that at current levels of Liberal funding “The air force will likely disappear through (the) 2008-2013 time frame and either the army or navy will disappear in the same time frame.” The report goes on to state that under the Liberal government’s lack of funding, “Canada cannot help but become the first modern and major power to disarm itself.” Further, Stronach has also made her stance known on issues such as gay marriage and marijuana, two of Jean Chrétien’s policy initiatives that Paul Martin has recently put on the back-burner. Stronach also seeks to rectify the inequity between federal and provincial healthcare spending. The federal/provincial levels of funding used to be 50-50. Yet, Paul Martin, as finance minister reduced the federal input to healthcare to a mere 16 cents on the dollar.

Under guise, you point out that Stronach detractors dismiss her as “daddy’s little girl”. Consider that Paul Martin’s father gave him the connections at Power Corp which eventually netted him co-ownership of CSL. Paul Martin’s father was also a long-time senior member of the Liberal Party. Even Jack Layton cannot escape being a product of his father’s political connections and pampered upbringing; Mr. Layton’s father was a Conservative cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney’s government.

Belinda Stronach provides a viable alternative to professional politicians who breed apathy in the Canadian voter. She has also fostered initiatives in getting youth/students involved in politics. We should all judge Belinda Stronach based on her policies (which are all listed on her website, Belinda.ca) and consider her as a strong contender for leadership. Indeed, one only has to consult the latest polls to confirm this.

Stephen Taylor, Arts ’03

Rex, ask your editors

rex.jpgIn a recent column concerning the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race, Rex Murphy mused perplexedly over the paucity of confabulatory prose by this nation’s columnists and news writers on the topic of the race.

Rex, the leadership race is not dead. Your editors have merely found another story and they’re running with it. I’m talking, of course, about the American Democratic Party Leadership Race. Why is our nation’s news media so focused on a topic that they usually abhor? Indeed, our national news peddlers tend to give American news less attention than its worth. Yet, why does our opposition’s leadership race get so much less coverage than the American’s opposition leadership race receives? The American Democrats and the Canadian Conservatives are trying to do the same thing, in effect: change the government. However, Peter Mansbridge has spoken more about John Kerry than Belinda Stronach, and we’ve heard more about Lieberman’s Joementum (or lack thereof) than we have heard about Tony Clement.

Our leadership race is news. Rex, you should ask your editors why they’re choosing to ignore the story. Without media coverage, our leadership contenders can only be heard as far as they can shout. Mr. Murphy has declared that Belinda Stronach, Tony Clement and Stephen Harper have all climbed inside a “Trojan horse”, ready to attack the Liberal party’s stranglehold on power. It’s not that the three intend to stay within the horse, rather, it’s that nobody has told the city of Troy that the horse is waiting outside its gates.