A heritage embarrassment

There's another strong entry in the Least Competent Con contest, as Bev Oda manages to supply two highly dubious stories in one day.

First, the Globe and Mail follows up on last fall's story about a media-industry fund-raiser which was conveniently timed two weeks before a review of broadcasting rules. And while Oda was eventually pushed to cancel the event, it doesn't look like the money stopped flowing:

Heritage Minister Bev Oda cancelled a Bay Street fundraiser last November over bad optics, but new records show her riding association still cashed donations from a who's who of Canadian broadcasting executives.

Ms. Oda was accused last November of mixing government work and political fundraising because of a Nov. 15 event in the Toronto financial district that was to feature the Heritage Minister and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier.

Questions were raised because the invitations to the $250-a-head event were circulated in early October by Charlotte Bell, a long-time friend of Ms. Oda's who now lobbies Canadian Heritage on behalf of CanWest MediaWorks.

Critics also attacked the timing of the event, considering that it was two weeks before a major federal review of Canada's broadcasting rules. The minister cancelled the event "to avoid any negative perception," her spokesman said at the time, and the government promised that the fundraising cheques were returned.

However, newly released records from Elections Canada reveal that of 20 individuals who donated to Ms. Oda's riding association last year, at least nine have senior roles in Canada's broadcast industry. Eleven of the donations were made within five weeks of the cancelled fundraiser.

Among the names listed as individual contributors are Astral Media board chairman André Bureau, who gave $250 on Oct. 16; TVO CEO Lisa De Wilde, who gave $500 on Oct. 16; CHUM president and CEO Jay Switzer, who donated $500 on Oct. 12; Standard Radio president and CEO Gary Slaight, who gave $500 on Oct. 13; and Rogers Radio CEO Gary Miles, who gave $250 on Oct. 12.

While at least one of the apparent donors denies any link to the cancelled fund-raiser, it surely can't be a coincidence that so many donations in multiples of the fund-raiser's ticket price were received from exactly the people whose potential presence at the fund-raiser looked so suspicious.

What's more, Oda's office is seemingly trying to defend the concept of the fund-raiser as part of its claim that nothing was done wrong:

Ms. Oda's spokesman, Jean-Luc Benoît, insisted yesterday that none of the donations were related to the fundraiser. He added that the broadcast review was at arm's length from the minister's office.

It's hard to see why the latter part would be added in except to preserve deniability in case the first part gets proven wrong. But such a claim surely seems to contradict Oda's implicit acceptance of the fact that the fund-raiser was problematic to begin with.

If issues about Oda's honesty weren't enough, though, there's also reason to doubt whether she has even the most basic understanding of what her portfolio includes. The Ottawa Citizen reports on Oda's idea of a cultural event worthy of federal funding:

Heritage Minister Bev Oda came under fire yesterday for polling the town council in her riding for festivals eligible for $30 million in federal funding, and suggesting a "Midnight Madness" sale organized by area businesses qualifies as an arts and heritage festival.

At this point, it's hard not to wonder whether Oda's tenure in cabinet is itself an elaborate form of performance art - perhaps designed to show the absurdity of the political scene in general, and the kinds of defences that a government will put up with in particular.

But with so many of her colleagues seemingly matching her gaffe for gaffe, the more likely answer is that she simply reflects the general level of merit (or lack thereof) within the Cons' cabinet. And based on examples like these, the closing of the Cons' living museum of incompetence can't come soon enough.

Update: Oda's office's second response was apparently to plead incompetence. But while it's hard not to grant them a very high degree of cluelessness, surely it's still a problem when a cabinet minister isn't concerned with submitting accurate information to Elections Canada.