Falling short

It isn't the first time that Auditor General has butted heads with the Cons' choices. But Sheila Fraser's testimony yesterday hints at one of the realities that the Cons have presumably been trying to avoid, as their own record in power is now coming under scrutiny (and not measuring up to the Auditor General's standards):

Auditor-General Sheila Fraser criticized Ottawa yesterday for buying billions of dollars worth of military aircraft through a non-competitive process, while Quebec's Premier said he wants his province to obtain more benefits from the purchases.

Ms. Fraser told a parliamentary committee she will start auditing the government's recent string of military acquisitions before the end of the year, although she did not state which will be part of the probe. Her findings will come out at the end of next year...

Ms. Fraser was critical of the process being used to buy the C-17 cargo planes and the Chinook helicopters from Boeing Co., which is called an advance contract award notice, or ACAN...

"We'll have to obviously do the audit before we can comment on the current process, but as I've said earlier . . . we have taken the position that ACANs are not competitive," Ms. Fraser said.

Of course, the final results of Fraser's audit will almost certainly come too late for the next federal election campaign.

But her testimony serves both as a reminder that the Cons' actions in government won't escape scrutiny no matter how well PMS is able to control his own caucus' message, and as an indication that the Cons are falling far short of the transparency and accountability which their supporters may have hoped for. And the more the Cons try to point the spotlight on fabricated Lib transgressions while building up a strongly negative record of their own, the faster Canadian voters are likely to tire of their stay in government.