Editorial

In the world of power politics, what goes around comes around

Only a government would give someone a $2.2 million job. That was the salary for Eleanor Clitheroe, which didn’t create a stir until she was fired as CEO of Hydro One. Odd indeed that Clitheroe’s excessive salary from the public purse never became an issue until it was time to go.

It took three long years for Hydro One’s big boss to wrack up $300,000 in limousine expenses, part of it for her nanny and children. Three years is a long time to keep John Q. Public in the dark.

During Clitheroe’s tenure, no bookkeeper, accountant, civil servant or administrative chief at Hydro One ever noticed that the same employee costing us $330,000 in limousine rides was taking some $214,000 in car allowances. If any of them did notice, they kept mum. During the entire Clitheroe reign, there were no enterprising reporters ringing alarm bells.

Indeed, now that’s she’s persona non gratis, it’s easy to forget that all of the money spent by Eleanor Clitheroe was approved.

Before fate stepped in, this CEO was headed out the door with a $6-million severance contract and her pension hovered at the $1.1 million mark before being slashed to $150,000–largesse in the opinion of the average working stiff, but only the norm for current CEO packages.
For the rest of us, that hydro rates have doubled recently is just another fact of life.

Hydro and largesse became synonymous long before the exit of one Eleanor Clitheroe.

Back in 1994 Ontario Hydro Chairman Maurice Strong opened talks on buying 12,500 hectares (30,875 acres) of a Costa Rican forest in the face of the utility’s then $34 billion debt.

Strong, a Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations and President of the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica was appointed to Ontario Hydro by former Ontario Premier Bob Rae, who remembered him as a friend of his father’s and called him "Uncle Moe".

Uncle Moe gets around and before joining Ontario Hydro. he had served as President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Petro Canada and earlier as President of Power Corporation of Canada.

Paul Desmarais is chairman of Power Corporation.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s daughter France, is married to Andre Desmarais, son of Paul Desmarais.

Ex-Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, now has been a lawyer and lobbyist for Power Corporation, which, together with Ontario Hydro and Hydro Quebec, recently formed the Hong-Kong-based ASIA Power Corp., to help China to develop its energy potential.

In the world of power, of both the energy and political breed,what goes around seems to come around.

Guess who’s recently been appointed to lead Ontario Hydro? Uncle Moe’s friend Bob Rae.

In the face of public outrage, the Eleanor Clitheroes get tarred and feathered. The politicians who appoint the Clitheroes continue to go unscathed.