I’ve been a tad confused about Tuesdays sponsorship testimony.
Is it fair to say that there is a disconnect between how the media has been reporting Chretien’s stunt and how the public feels about? Was anyone else as disgusted as me?
I’d say so, definitely! I agree with Marjory LeBreton in Today’s Winnipeg Sun:
Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton said she’s fed up with all the talk about golf balls.
“All this talk about balls is such a guy thing,” the senator said. “I know lots of guys with balls but no brains.”
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2005/02/10/926268-sun.html
But then I’m not Canadian. I just didn’t want Brian to think no-one cared about his former prime minister. We just had a few revelations about one of our own, dear old John Major. Anyone remember him? And Black Wednesday?
Surely if John Major was involved it must have been Grey Wednesday.
Gary, it’s not actually about golf balls. That’s what Chrétien is trying to make us think by pulling his stunt, and the media lapped it up. It’s about his government’s wasting of hundreds of millions of taxpayer’s dollars in the so called sponsorship program. Actually “wasting” is the most charitable interpretation you could possibly put on it, and I hope the commission of inquiry will supply the correct term for us.
Yes I’m disgusted with Tuesday’s events, but actually mainly with Judge Gomery. I expected better from him, whereas I expected nothing better from the media, nor from Chrétien.
By talking to the media, Gomery had handed Chrétien the perfect opportunity to pull this stunt. It’s hard to resist the conclusion that the balance of Gomery’s mind was affected by an inflated sense of self-importance, no doubt bolstered by toadying from the media hacks.
However it’s good to see Chrétien on the stand, if only to remind ourselves of how glad we should be that he’s gone. In over a decade as PM the guy did practically nothing, almost nothing good anyway. (Mind you I am eternally grateful for the one good thing he did do, which was monumentally good: refusing to join the war on Iraq. Whatever his reasons were.)
I think Gary was just kidding around StevieJ. If I wasn’t Canadian, I’d laugh at that line too. Actually the “balls” jokes are flying around Ottawa like snow.
I’d disagree with you on Gomery. I like the guy, I think he’s very smart, he proved it by not holding Chretien in contempt of court. He shouldn’t have talked to the media, and he realized it now, but when he did, he was only commenting on the facts of the case and he had momentarily forgotten how much of an arrogant snake Chretien was. I think he’ll give the PM a nice legacy with his decision (if Martin lets him make a decision).
I couldn’t agree more with Steve J. and the rest of the people on here. Years of “waste” tisk,tisk, tisk…I just hope Martin is now telling some of the truth as it’s his turn with the noose on his neck now..and at least he hasn’t got a ‘well prepared speech’. Suprising that Chretien pointed the finger at the previous govt’s before him for creating this “Unity Fund” .hmmm?
upiper71
Honestly?
I don’t give a shit. Every government in the land does exactly the same thing, without exception.
Anyone hear about the big scandal in Alberta a year or so back, in which (IIRC) Ralph Klein’s wife was steered some lucrative no-show “consulting” work by a company doing business with the government?
Right, it dropped without a trace, because the alberta media is in the government’s pocket, and they didn’t want a fuss made.
The Liberals were bribing the federalists in quebec to stay onside during the referendum campaign. That’s not pretty, but it worked, barely.
Remember, the PQ was exactly as dirty; they were ready to divert billions from the provincially-administered pension fund (Quebec’s version of the CPP) to bolster separatism.
~~
A clean government is rarer than Diogenes’ proverbial honest man.
This scandal is about (relatively) tiny amounts of money, and it’s actually quite likely that the canadian taxpayers got some good out of it, although the political realities in quebec mean that they can’t say so.
That’s certainly more benefit than the alberta taxpayers got, or the BC taxpayers just got out of the BC Rail scandal, or Ontario got out of any of the Harris/Eves boondoggles.
I can’t figure out where everyone’s getting this BS that a few strategically placed maple leafs had any effect on the outcome of the Referendum. Even if it did, why on earth did the PMs aides try to launder the cash? Why are both PMs denying ever having to had any relationships with these people? If it was such a glorious success, why deny it?
I don’t give a damn about the PQ. I know Quebec politics are dirty, but the PQ isn’t running this country.
The media drops issues like this because people like yourself say “I don’t give a shit” not because they’re in anyone’s pocket.
I can’t figure out where everyone’s getting this BS that a few strategically placed maple leafs had any effect on the outcome of the Referendum.
I was living in quebec at the time, and I can tell you, there was a serious campaign going on which aimed at convincing Quebecers they got nothing from confederation. Over the years Quebec had successfully taken over operational (but not funding..) for a vast array of federally-funded programs, from manpower training to immigration resettlement. Gradually, all the maple leaves got stripped from the cheques and replaced with Fleur-de-lis. When the separatism sales campaign began, the soverienists told quebecers that they got nothing from confederation; that they only paid taxes and got no services in return–that Canada was a burden on quebec, and not the other way round.
Serious, well educated and politically-aware quebecers would tell me that Quebec sent billions a year more to Ottawa than they recieved.
This is not the case, and never was. Quebec has been the largest recipient of federal transfer payments for years and years. The thing is, to the average quebecer all this money was invisible–it had been rebranded in blue and white, and they couldn’t tell that the long suffering Toronto taxpayers were footing the bill.
So they thought they were being ripped off.
This became a real problem for the feds–they were spending billions in quebec and getting absolutely no credit for it. The federal-provincial agreements which government all the “shared” funding programs didn’t demand federal recognition, so they had to scramble to dig up something–anything, really–to get the federal brand onto, in order to combat the contrary propaganda.
Because make no mistake, the Quebecois were and are keeping score. Playing the feds off angainst the province is a OLD game in quebec, and one they know well.
Yeah, sponsoring a crummy plowing match or lacrosse tournament sounds bush-league, and it was. But the feds–by which I mean principally the mulroney government–had already largely abandoned the good ground, and so the liberals had to find other ways of getting the flag out at the last minute.
So that’s what this program was doing, in general.
Even if it did, why on earth did the PMs aides try to launder the cash?
Because like every other government in the history of the universe, they were steering a bunch of this cash to their buddies.
Remember, everything in quebec get filtered through two lenses–are you english or french, and if french, are you federalist or soveriegnist. Everything. These questions are to quebec was race and income are to the US, or what class and which school you went to are in the UK.
So the feds had to keep their allies happy. In a polarised political environment, the ad companies needed or wanted contracts, and if they didn’t get them, they’d change sides, because you CAN’T work both sides of the field in Quebec. If you’re the “federalist” ad company, you don’t get any work from the province, or indeed any of the major companies of “Quebec Inc”. Nearly all the major corporations operating in quebec are part owned by the Quebec pension fund, which is run by a board appointed by–you guessed it–the provincial cabinet.
So to keep the troops on side, they had to get some loot every now and then. I don’t doubt that some of that loot then made its way back to the liberal party during elections, but that, frankly, isn’t any different than any other governing party, anywhere. It’s one of the perqs of government.
Why are both PMs denying ever having to had any relationships with these people? If it was such a glorious success, why deny it?
Because the people of Quebec will turn against anyone who spells out what happened. They’re proud, and they don’t want the laundry washed in public, which is what Paul Martin decided to do–proving against doubt that he has the political acument of a turnip.
Paul Martin’s sole interest in this was in furthering his war with Jean Chretien. Disastrously for the liberals, this may all come back and blow up in his face.