While far too many media outlets have
gone out of their
way to give Tony Clement and the Cons a pass on this week's thoroughly damning revelations about their G8 pork-barrelling and cover-up, Tim Naumetz and the Hill Times actually saw an opportunity to engage in some journalism. And the
results are rather striking in showing just how corrupt the handout process actually was:
A select committee of nine mayors, reeves and municipal leaders that was chaired by Treasury Board President Tony Clement and vetted applications from their own and other municipalities for a share of $50-million Ottawa spent on sidewalks, streets, even flower boxes for the G8 summit in Mr. Clement’s riding last year received $41.4-million from the fund.
The remaining six municipalities in Mr. Clement’s electoral district that received project funding but whose mayors or reeves were not on the committee got a total of only $2.5-million, with the remainder going to North Bay, Ont., for runway improvements when it was being considered as an air link into Mr. Clement's Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont., riding, and the Ontario Transport Ministry as a contribution to bridge work already underway in the riding.
Which leads nicely to Dr. Dawg's
comment:
Conservative ideology holds that taxes are essentially a kind of legalized theft from wealth-creating individuals. If you have to have them, keep ‘em low and spend them on necessities, like prisons and foreign wars. But what happens when the very purveyors of this coprolitic nonsense are caught with their hand in the cookie jar—and that jar under their arm?
When a veteran artist receives government grants, it’s fodder for vicious calumny by a vapid blonde ex-journalist on that perpetual amateur hour that is SunTV—whose owner has received millions of dollars in government hand-outs himself.
But when a government minister essentially steals $50 million to enhance his stature in his own riding, a curtain of quiet descends.
The sickening stench of Conservative corruption and hypocrisy is overwhelming. And there’s no end in sight.
Dawg is prescient with his "no end in sight' comment. The Cons are getting stronger, the media further right and no one is minding the store. I keep zoning out of politics and culture in this country because it's getting a little hard to take. We all need a little hope to progress. Without any effective opposition and without any press, crooks like Clement will mutliply and corruption will soon become the norm across the government, if it already isn't.
ReplyDelete<span>Dawg is prescient with his "no end in sight' comment. The Cons are getting stronger, the media further right and no one is minding the store. I keep zoning out of politics and culture in this country because it's getting a little hard to take. We all need a little hope to progress. Without any effective opposition and without any press to represent us, we can only stand by and watch as crooks like Clement mutliply while the media looks the other way.</span>
ReplyDeleteAgreed that's been the Cons' standard response to even the most glaring internal scandals. But I'm a bit more optimistic about the opposition, particularly where the NDP can position itself over the next four years: seeing as that it's already breaking stories like this one just months after taking over the role, there's plenty of reason for hope it can both highlight the Cons' abuses and offer an alternative.
ReplyDelete