Necessary measures

CC picks up on the absurdity of Con MP James Moore criticizing the CBC for simple food and travel expenses incurred just around the time that the minister then responsible was billing the public purse thousands of dollars for limousine rides. But there's another part of the story which also deserves to be pointed out:

Moore wants the CBC's board to make sure that kind of spending doesn't happen again.

"I would therefore ask that, as president of the board of trustees of the CBC, you take the necessary measures to ensure the highest level of accountability to taxpayers," Moore wrote. "As minister responsible for the Canadian Heritage portfolio, I would ask to be informed as soon as possible of what these measures are."

In other words, Moore couldn't be bothered to suggest a single "necessary measure" that might actually improve matters. Far easier instead to force the CBC to spend its own time and resources - likely at a cost greater than the expenses in question - in order to guess at what it could do differently to pacify the Cons. And all this even while both sides know that the Cons have a strong incentive to slam the CBC no matter what it does in order to motivate their donor base.

Fortunately, the CBC need not be solely at Moore's mercy. And with the NDP ranking as the strongest contender for Moore's Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam seat, now might be a great time to ensure that accountability applies to the Cons as well as to the federal institutions they're looking to trash.