There is now talk of a snap election as a result of the explosive testimony of Quebec advertising executive, Jean Brault before the Gomery Commission. Brault’s testimony, the publication of which has been banned by Justice Gomery pending the completion of Brault’s criminal charges, supposedly alleges serious wrongdoing of senior members of the Liberal Party. Notwithstanding that fact, it is hard to believe that something like adscam could actually trigger an election.
adscam is a big deal for the politicians and the media. Unfortunately, it seems that corruption in government has crossed over the line and it is no longer regarded as simply an event. From the reaction, or lack of it, from most of the Canadian public, government corruption now seems to be a way of life, much as it is in Nigeria or India.
Last week, the Gomery Commission was told about how Chuck Guité, the bureaucrat who ran the sponsorship program, had arranged for an advertising executive to bill for time that he spent in Ottawa’s Corel Centre. The ad exec, Mario Parent, was paid an hourly rate for such onerous tasks as watching Ottawa Senator hockey games, wrestling, the circus and a Neil Diamond concert. Okay, so maybe he deserved the big bucks for having to watch wrestling, but I digress.
attending an NHL game is something that ordinary Canadians can identify with. It lacks the otherworldliness of monies that were spent on such things as attendance at fancy cigar clubs and similar objects of government largesse. The average Canadian taxpayer that is a hockey fan is finding it more and more difficult to be able to afford to go and see a professional hockey game, when games happen to be played, of course. Yet the government is not only using taxpayer monies to allow their friendly Quebec advertising executive to watch games and other events from a private box — they are paying them for being there. Shameful.
You would expect that this revelation alone would be the subject of outrage from Canadians who are footing the bill. But it isn’t. Sure, there are some angry people as evidenced in the letters to the editor in Canadian newspapers. But is there enough anger out there to knock the Liberals from power? Probably not.
The revelations that are coming out of the Gomery Commission will be significant in the province of Quebec, but probably nowhere else. Because the whole sponsorship scheme was supposedly undertaken to keep that province in Canada and the advertising companies that made the big bucks were based in Quebec, Quebeckers are taking it personally. But it is doubtful that the Commission will make a dent in how the voters in Ontario, the ones who usually determine which party will govern Canada, will vote in the next election.
Should an election be called now, Paul Martin will do what he did during the last election campaign. He will demonize the Conservative Party of Canada by telling Canadians that a Conservative government will end health care as we know it and women who even think about having an abortion will be jailed or worse. Martin will tell Eastern Canadians that a Stephen Harper-led government will bring an end to the equalization benefits that the Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador now enjoy. Unfortunately not much has changed since June 2004. Conservative leader Stephen Harper didn’t have the ability or the inclination to challenge the prime minister then and likely won’t be able to do so now.
The only effect that adscam will have on the next election will be a possible shutout for the Liberals in Quebec. Martin will merely step up his rhetoric and convince the rest of Canada that they will be doomed, simply doomed, if they elect a Conservative government. It will work in the east and it will work in Ontario. The likely effect will be another minority government.
Martin may want another election to prevent further damage to his party in Quebec. But he will probably be looking at another minority government and that will mean Paul goes bye bye. He won’t want to risk that.
Canadians are simply not sufficiently concerned about what is coming out of the Gomery Commission to have adscam trigger another election.