As someone with an interest in what happens on both sides of the 49th, I wonder if the Canadian electorate is bright enough to catch on to the bolded part in this article, and that they're being had by the Liberals one...more...time.......
May 15, 2005
THE PM'S DESPERATION TO CLING TO POWER AT ANY COST LOOKS LIKE THE ANTICS OF A THIRD WORLD DESPOT
By JOHN CROSBIE
Those who think that the excesses of the Robert Mugabe government of Zimbabwe and the collapse of the democratic parliamentary government in that Third World country can't happen here should take a closer look at political events in Canada since Paul Martin became our prime minister.
The Gomery inquiry has revealed a system of maladministration and corruption in the sponsorship program in Quebec, including the purloining of public monies to assist the national Liberal party in financing its election activities.
Martin now wants to delay an election for at least 10 months to allow time for the public's memories of the corruption revealed at the inquiry to fade and give the government time to spend billions of dollars in public funds to attract support from client groups across the country.
The Mugabe tendencies of Martin were confirmed last Tuesday, when a majority of the House of Commons by a vote of 153 to 150 passed a motion recommending the government resign. If that is not an illustration of non-confidence from the majority of the members of the House of Commons, what else could be?
Instead, Martin's Liberal minority government says it will ignore this vote and carry on without the confidence of the majority of the House. Martin now flouts the most serious and fundamental conventions of the parliamentary system.
Since he went on television on April 21, his government has made spending announcements totaling $22.3 billion, which works out to $1.24 billion a day, including the $5.75 billion the Liberals gave to Ontario last weekend and the $8 billion produced last Monday to reduce airport rents across the country over the next 50 years.
In the past two weeks, Liberal MPs and ministers have announced 122 spending projects across the country, illustrating why Martin wants to wait 10 months before an election which he cannot call without a majority.
The facts matter not to Martin who, in the true Mugabe tradition, plans to stay in office no matter what.
Martin also doesn't explain that, according to the Inquiries Act, Justice John Gomery cannot outline any conclusion about the civil or criminal liability of any person or organization (the Liberal party or whomever). Gomery is not permitted to reveal who carried out any theft or fraud or corruption or who wrongfully misdirected public funds and passed taxpayers' money on to the party or its workers or supporters.
The fact is, the final Gomery report will not provide the kind of answers that the public is interested in. The public does not need to have this report, if there is one, to make up their minds about what happened and who was at fault and who were the villains. The facts are revealed in the evidence.
DEPLORABLE CORRUPTION
Canadians should not forget that the Liberal party has governed Canada for 56 of the last 70 years. It is this lack of competition between political parties that has led to the deplorable corruption and plunder now revealed by Gomery.
Two months ago, Martin forced his finance minister, Ralph Goodale, to bring in a budget reversing the canons of fiscal soundness Martin himself practised under Jean Chretien. Goodale's original budget included a 10% boost in federal spending, the largest increase since 1973-74, when Pierre Trudeau accepted a Liberal-NDP coalition. Martin's deal with the NDP for $4.6 billion in new spending brought the increase to 12%. The latest spending spree puts it over 15%.
In another Mugabe-inspired parliamentary violation last week, Goodale tabled a special spending bill based on the Layton-Martin budget agreement. This legislation provides for a $4.5-billion slush fund that government can dip into at will without parliamentary approval. As former finance official Don Drummond said, "For years government has wanted an instrument that would allow it to allocate spending without having to say what it's for. This act will do it."
Are you going to allow this perversion of our democratic parliamentary system to continue? Are we going to let Canada become the first country of the West to follow the deplorable, dictatorial decline of despoiled Zimbabwe?
torontosun.com |
