by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
March 15, 2004
The federal Liberals have to go. and if they can’t be defeated, they have to be knocked down to minority status. This has nothing to do with their policies or lack thereof--the government is simply too corrupt to continue to govern. Unlike the scandals of the past that have involved fairly defined circumstances and could have happened in any political party, the fraud, theft and corruption within the Liberal Party of Canada is all pervasive. More and more Canada is descending into a third world country whose leaders divert revenues into private bank accounts or distribute it amongst friends. Swiss bank accounts, Quebec advertising agencies--it makes no difference. The hard-earned money of the taxpayers is gone.
Ministerial responsibility, once a hallmark of our parliamentary system, is no more. Prime Minister Paul Martin, who was Finance Minister and Vice-Chair of the Treasury Board during most of the Chrétien years goes around the country doing his Sgt. Shultz " I see nothing, I know nothing" impression. alphonso Gagliano, the Public Works Minister when adscam got going is now whining that he’s just the poor victim in all of this. With people in high places refusing to take any responsibility for their actions, the culture of corruption will continue. The only solution is to send the Natural Governing Party packing. and the only way this can be accomplished is for Canadians to engage in strategic voting, that is, voting for the opposition candidate who has the best chance of knocking off the Liberal candidate despite reservations about that candidate’s party’s policies.
I dislike writing in the first person but sometimes it simply cannot be avoided. I live in the Toronto riding of Beaches-East York that is currently held by Liberal Maria Minna. Minna made the news recently when a copy of a tape that was "accidentally" recorded of a Liberal caucus meeting was obtained by the Toronto Sun. according to Minna, her sister had said to her: "well, Maria, maybe you’re not taking money, but I don’t know about the rest of your government". Now Maria Minna was not personally involved in any of the advertising contracts, nor was she in a position that she ought to have known what was going on. Yet her own sister qualifies her belief that Minna is not a thief by the word "maybe". Could there be any better illustration of depths to which the Liberal Party of Canada has sunk than the comments made by the Toronto MP’s sister?
I have never voted for the NDP in my life. I have never even considered voting NDP, even when I had the opportunity to vote for Frances Lankin, a cabinet minister in the Bob Rae government and perhaps one of the more sensible Ndippers ever to hold elective office. Until now. although there is a hard core of Conservative supporters in my riding, the Tories have no chance. This riding, which includes the Beaches, is NDP country. It is NDP provincially and represented on Toronto City Council and the Toronto School Board by NDP members. If Minna is to be defeated it will be by the New Democrats. and I’m prepared to vote for the NDP even though that party’s candidate is Peter Tabuns. Tabuns was a Toronto councillor from 1990 until his defeat in 1997 and went on to serve as the Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada from 1999 until earlier this year. Tabuns’ is most remembered from his years on Toronto council by his call to boycott Harvey’s Restaurants because they made political donations to the Ontario Tories and I still haven’t recovered from eating all of those hamburgers during the boycott.
If Peter Tabuns could run things, he would knock Canada back into the Stone age and then complain that the country is doomed because we are running out of stones. But no matter. I’m prepared to vote for an environmental wacko socialist if it means getting rid of a Liberal.
although it is not likely to happen, I would rather see Jack Layton as prime minister of Canada than Paul Martin. I would rather have Jack raise my taxes and spend it on saving the squirrels or whatever the NDP likes to spend money on than have my current taxes stolen by the current arrogant and corrupt government who thinks that paying off their friends is their right. at some point, Canadians just have to say enough is enough and the hell with the consequences.
Paul Martin promised Canadians a transparent government and in that respect he delivered--you can see right through him. He’s done nothing but deny his responsibility and used adscam to rid the government of Chrétien era appointees. If the Liberals are re-elected, they will have a good chuckle and then get down to business as usual.