With the exception of the Bloc Quebecois, the sponsorship scandal that has plagued the Martin Liberals’ term in office is not likely to receive the attention that many might think that it should. The Liberals, of course will try and avoid the topic like the plague. If the Conservatives spend too much time talking about adscam and Justice Gomery’s findings they will not have sufficient time to put forward what they would do if they end up holding power. This, of course would lead to the Liberals painting Stephen Harper and the Tories as having a secret agenda. and if the NDP overplays the corruption scandal, all they will accomplish is to highlight the hypocrisy that the corrupt government would still be in power if Paul Martin had caved in to Jack Layton’s demands.
The Canadian media, much of it Liberal-friendly, isn’t going overboard on Liberal corruption either. But to be fair, there are other important issues to cover during the campaign and stories of money-stuffed envelopes being left on restaurant tables is old news in this country. But the falling of our government due to scandal and corruption was big news in the international media.
a good example of how the rest of the world views our quickly approaching third world country can be found in the arab News. The arab News, an English language daily that is published in Saudi arabia, ran an editorial on Wednesday entitled, "Canadian Politics". The piece noted that "[T]the primary cause of the Liberal defeat on Monday after only 18 months in power was the scandal in which the party in Quebec was taking kickbacks for seven years until 2002 from advertising companies to which it awarded lucrative contracts. The money was allegedly used to fund Liberal Party campaigns." While the editorial went on to say that Paul Martin was personally absolved of any blame, it went on to make the prescient prediction that "there is a strong chance that Canadian politics will emerge just as fissured and unstable as before."
Canadians should be embarrassed. It says a lot about our country when a newspaper in a country like Saudi arabia, with only getting one relatively minor fact (the editorial erroneously referred to the NDP’s support of the Liberals as a coalition government), paints us correctly as a country with a corrupt government that is on a par with many of those in the developing world. While the arab News editorial had nothing new to tell us, the enormity of the corruption scandal seems a lot more serious when it is reported in the foreign media.
In many of the foreign media reports of the fall of the Liberal government, the headlines said it all. "Scandal topples Canadian government (Times Online — U.K.); "Scandal fells Canada’s government" (Herald Sun — australia) and "Scandal-hit Canadian government ousted (Mail & Guardian — South africa). These and similar headlines, stories and editorials do not make Canada look good.
Several foreign publications are not as shy as much of the Canadian media is when it comes to pointing out exactly how the government fell. Many Canadian outlets have not reported the fact that last Monday’s vote was the first time in the history of Canada that a government has fallen on an actual motion of non confidence in the government. When other minority governments have collapsed, it was after being defeated on a money bill such as a budget and, under our parliamentary system the defeat of a money bill is treated as a motion of non confidence.
Paul Martin and his arrogant Liberals who pride themselves in Canada’s place in the world should take some time out of their hectic campaign schedules to see how the world views how this election came about. Unfortunately since they have no shame it won’t make any difference.
and . . .
For shear entertainment value, one of the pundits that should be read during the election campaign is Sheila Copps in the Toronto Sun. In a column entitled, "Liberal Democracy? Ha!" Copps writes about the way that Liberal star candidate Michael Ignatieff parachuted into the Toronto riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore after Jean augustine somehow suddenly decided that she was not running again.
Copps’ will be worth watching as she discovers flaws in the Liberal Party of Canada that she never seemed to notice during the approximately 20 years that she was a federal Liberal MP. Sheila’s columns over the next couple of months should make interesting reading.