Tag: paul martin

Crown Corporation Board of Directors Proportion of Political Contributions Sorted by Party

About a week ago, I wrote of the hypocritical bias that exists at the CBC, our Canadian State Broadcasting Corporation. While they whined and complained at the mere notion of the arrival of any semblance of parity in debate in this country, I crunched some numbers and found how ‘fair and balanced’ they really are.

Today, former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien testified at the Gomery Inquiry and provided little insight into the political direction which may have directed the program. Tomorrow, Paul Martin takes the stand and will mark the first time in Canadian history, since Sir John. A MacDonald, that a sitting Prime Minister has provided testimony in a judicial inquiry.

Anyways, we all remember how Paul Martin promised that he’d “get to the bottom” of the Sponsorship Scandal “come hell or high water” before the “most important election of our lives”? Or something like that…

Well, I just did Paul Martin’s job. I believe that I got to the bottom of the Sponsorship Scandal. I present the political contributions of the boards of directors of the very Crown corporations which are at the centre of the Liberal mess.

First Canada Post,
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and now Via Rail,
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I’ll let the data speak for itself. You might not have to be a Liberal to be a Canadian, but to get the posh government jobs you’d better be, and you’d better bring your chequebook.

Yes, I got to the bottom of the Sponsorship Scandal (well… at least further than Paul Martin has pretended). There is but one obvious truth to be learned from not only this data, but from this Liberal scandal in general:

Cronyism begets corruption.

Another day, another scandal

hpinvent.jpgThere are reports today (here, here and here) that another scandal has come out for Paul Martin’s Liberal Party. It appears that Hewlett Packard has overcharged the Department of National Defence $160 million for hardware services not provided. CTV reports that “HP denied any wrongdoing, saying that the problems were located within DND. A civilian employee of the department was fired last year over the controversy.”

Defence Minister David Pratt asserts that Canadians will get every tax dollar back from HP.

I don’t know of any connections between the executives at HP and the Liberal Party so I assume that this is merely incompetence of the Ministry of Finance, instead of corruption by government officials.

Fellow Conservative Jay Hill is correct to say that the military can not afford to waste such money and that Prime Minister Paul Martin should have known about the problems when he was finance minister.

“The prime minister keeps talking about transparency so instead of waiting for the scandal of the day to be made public, will he come clean today and tell us: How many other departments were swindled while he was the finance minister? … As finance minister, the Prime Minister was on duty when at least $160-million dollars went missing from the Department of National Defence in phony invoicing by Hewlett-Packard or its subcontractors … A money manager who doesn’t notice that amount of cash disappearing gets fired.” — Jay Hill, Conservative MP

Deborah Gray also weighed in on this latest scandal:

“Yet it is only when they learn that they get caught, that the media is about to expose these things, that they even bother to acknowledge this latest theft … We have no idea whether this DND computer scandal is the end or if it’s just the beginning. I think we have uncovered only the tip of the iceberg.” — Deborah Gray, Conservative MP

Here’s an interesting excerpt from a Globe and Mail article (August 20th, 2002)

Last month, U.S. President George W. Bush sought to restore confidence in Wall Street and in his country’s corporate culture by introducing tough new measures designed to clean up Corporate America and punish white-collar offenders. To date, no such legislation has been passed in Canada.

After the speech, Mr. Chrétien told reporters that the federal ministers of justice and finance are looking into the issue of white-collar crime.

“As I said in my speech, there is no indication of a serious problem,” Mr. Chrétien said. However, he added that provincial and federal governments are “working on that because you never know … it’s not done publicly when they do that kind of crime.”

Thomas d’Aquino (president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives) said the council, which represents the CEOs of more than 100 of Canada’s largest corporations, is “urging government not to overreact.”

Paul Tsaparis, president of HP Canada, one of the country’s largest technology companies, issued a similar warning, saying: “You cannot legislate trust.”

I believe that it is essential for the Liberal government to immediately perform forensic audits of each department to figure out how many of our tax dollars have inappropriately gone to line the pockets of their friends and of other CEOs. There should be more transparency in government and contracts non-essential to national security should be made available for public review. Was the finance minister (Paul Martin) paying any attention to the books?

Sheila appeals…

sheila.jpgShe’s not done yet folks. Sheila Copps just announced that she will appeal her nomination loss in the riding of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek. She’s taking her case right to the RCMP with sworn statements from her supporters who suspected “dirty tricks”. Her mother, the Liberal riding president and Warren Kinsella are among those who claim that they were turned away from the nomination meeting.

Now, as an observer from the outside and particularly as a Conservative Party observer, I must say that Sheila’s bold last-ditch move against Paul Martin is refreshing. When the Conservative Party was going through the pains of formation, the Liberals were laughing smugly as a small minority of members wondered if they’d stay or go. This week, as I’ve said, has proven to be a dirty internal war within the Liberal Party and it appears that Sheila is about to become a bigger headache for those Liberal MPs seeking re-election. A party in turmoil is not fit to govern and Canadians are starting to realize that, as Conservatives, we’re ready to form the next government.

We have already learned that the Liberal government is not in order. Now we’re starting to see that the Liberal house is not in order.