It’s
hard to believe but looking back on the Chrtien/Martin era in the years to
come the sponsorship scandal may be the high point.
The
sponsorship scandal known as adscam saw approximately $350 million diverted
from the taxpayers to Liberal cronies and Quebec advertising agencies. There is
little doubt that this scandal, with its payoffs, bribes, theft, fraud, forgery
and money laundering was the worst case of corruption in the relatively short
history of the country.
While
there is no excuse for what was done to Canadians and their hard earned tax
dollars, there was a reason why it happened at the particular time that it did.
Chrtien was trying to keep the country together. While Quebec was preparing
for the October 1995 referendum on sovereignty, Jean Chrtien and his Liberals
were sleeping. It was only a few days before the vote that the government woke
up and realized that Quebeckers might actually vote to form some sort of
sovereignty association with the rest of Canada. Fortunately the “No” forces
prevailed, in part because of the actions of ordinary Canadians in the days
leading up to the referendum. after the vote was counted and the government saw
how close they came to losing, panic set in.
Either
too lazy or otherwise incapable of trying to keep Quebec in Canada by the use
of logical argument, the Liberals decided to try and placate La Belle Province
by symbolism. The theory went that if Quebeckers saw the word “Canada” and the Canadian
flag all over the place they would somehow give up their dream of nationhood.
The sponsorship program was hastily born with virtually no control over the
massive amount of spending. The entire situation was just ripe for the fraud
and corruption that was to take place. But there was little doubt that Jean
Chrtien, who was complicit at worst or reckless at best, did what he did out a
love for Canada and a desire to keep the country united. But despite the
massive ripoff of the Canadian taxpayer during his 10 years in office, Jean
Chrtien never showed the utter contempt for the ordinary Canadian that Paul
Martin and his boys and girls are currently showing.
Martin
steadfastly refuses to lower taxes on gasoline in order to give ordinary
Canadians some relief against dramatically increasing prices. In addition to
the government refusing to give up the GST – the tax on other taxes that
increases when the cost of gas goes up, the government is even adamant about
keeping the 1.5 cent/litre tax that was imposed to fight the deficit when the
last deficit occurred in the late 90s. Paul antoinette’s “let them take the
bus” plays well in socialist downtown Toronto but is meaningless for those who
live in rural areas or smaller centres. Martin scoffs at those Canadians who
drive trucks and cabs and otherwise keep the economy going as they face
drastically increasing costs. The only important thing is that Paul and his
gang can continue to live in the style to which they are accustomed. as far as
Paul Martin is concerned, these ordinary taxpaying, working Canadians call all
just go to hell.
Martin’s
spirited defense of David Dingwall, who ran up hundreds and thousands of
dollars in expenses and who found no expense too small to make the taxpayer pay
for, showed how really out of touch Martin is with ordinary Canadians. Dingwall
did a good job at the mint; he deserves taxpayer funded chewing gum and bottled
water. When it comes to “the end justifies the means” philosophy, Jean Chrtien
and the sponsorship program had nothing on Martin.
The
government’s solution to help low income Canadians with the cost of home
heating was another slap in the face to the middle class. There are certainly
seniors on fixed incomes that need relief against rising fuel costs. But the majority
of those with low incomes live in rental accommodations and do not directly pay
to heat their residences. While they should be given relief, so should those
middle class working Canadians. as far as Prince Paul is concerned, the middle
class don’t count.
and
now we have the Surplus allocation act; if there is a surplus and if the government decides not to spend it, taxpayers will
receive a rebate. The rebate, if it comes, has been estimated by some
economists to be in the vicinity of $75; enough for a cab driver to fill up the
tank once.
Diverting
millions of dollars to Liberal friendly Quebec advertising agencies wasn’t
enough to get rid of this corrupt and uncaring government. Maybe a few pizzas
and a package of chewing gum will do the trick.