XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   XPost: ab.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   Stephen Harper's scandal sheet   
      
      
   When it comes to keeping your money out of the hands of their friends,   
   Stephen Harper can't be trusted.   
      
   When he was in opposition, Harper said that unlike the Liberals, he’d   
   protect ordinary people's tax dollars.   
      
   He'd stop giving government jobs to party hacks:   
      
        “[Patronage] has got to stop, and when we become government,   
   it will stop.”   
        – Stephen Harper, Speech on Accountability, 17 November 2005   
      
   He'd make sure tough contracting rules were followed:   
      
        "A Conservative government will ... Review and amend all   
   contracting rules to make the government’s procurement process free   
   from political interference."   
        - 2006 Conservative Party Platform, p. 10.   
      
   But that's not what he's done.   
      
   Instead, Harper has looked the other way as his own Finance Minister has   
   rewarded Conservative friends and insiders:   
      
        $122,000 to Hugh MacPhie, a Flaherty loyalist and long-time   
   speechwriter, in an untendered contract to write the speech for 2007   
   federal budget (Toronto Star, February 2, 2008)   
        $24,877 to David Curtain, who worked on Flaherty's failed campaign   
   for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, to   
   write the finance minister's first budget speech. Curtain was also paid   
   $3,350 to write a keynote address earlier this year for Flaherty.   
   (Toronto Star, February 2, 2008)   
        $24,877 to Bronwen Evans, Flaherty's executive assistant and chief   
   of staff from provincial politics was awarded a speechwriting contract.   
   (Toronto Star, February 14, 2008)   
        $24,900 to Sara Beth Mintz, an Ontario Progressive Conservative   
   Party vice-president, received for budget "analysis, assessment and   
   advice." (Toronto Star, February 2, 2008)   
        Also, James Love, a Toronto lawyer who donated $63,000 to Flaherty   
   in the past, was appointed to the board of the Royal Canadian Mint. Love   
   also "volunteered" on two advisory panels for which he was provided   
   expenses of $85,000. (Toronto Star, February 14, 2008)   
        And another of Flaherty's donors, Carol Hansell, was appointed to   
   the board of the Bank of Canada in October 2006 (Toronto Star, February   
   14, 2008).   
      
   Since Jack Layton and the NDP first starting raising the tough questions   
   about Harper's finance minister, weeks ago, Harper has refused to fire   
   or even punish his Minister for breaking the rules.   
      
   In the last election campaign Stephen Harper promised to change the way   
   Ottawa works by ...   
      
        “establishing a Public Appointments Commission to set merit-based   
   requirements for appointments...[and] prevent ministerial aides and   
   other political appointees receiving favoured treatment when applying   
   for public service positions.”   
        - 2006 Conservative Party Platform, p. 9.   
      
   But he broke those promises too.   
      
   Instead of cleaning up the way the Liberals used to do business in   
   Ottawa, they’ve become captured by it.   
      
        “There is no more important job to do than cleaning up government   
   and bringing accountability back to Ottawa.”   
        – then opposition leader Stephen Harper, 4 November 2005   
      
   Stephen Harper can’t be trusted to end the kind of corruption and   
   excess that was exposed in the Liberals’ Sponsorship Scandal.   
      
   He promised that a Conservative government would be different and that   
   they would replace the culture of entitlement with the culture of   
   accountability.   
      
   So why have so many Conservatives been caught looking out for themselves   
   at the expense of ordinary working families?   
      
   	   
   1. Blackburn’s flights of fancy   
      
   Conservatives came to Ottawa promising to be transparent and accountable   
   with our tax dollars. But in 2006 Minister of Labour Jean Pierre   
   Blackburn racked up almost $150,000 in flights on privately hired   
   jets that don’t appear in his pro-active disclosure of travel   
   expenses. For five trips, Blackburn was the only passenger on the   
   flight, using the planes like his personal taxi to ferry him between   
   Ottawa and his home in Alma, Quebec. Incredibly, Blackburn once rented a   
   helicopter to fly him across the Port of Sept Iles — a trip of less   
   than 30 minutes by car.   
      
   Cost to ordinary taxpayers: $150,000   
   	   
   2. Loose Cannon   
      
   Conservatives claim that they use the government’s fleet of Challenger   
   aircraft less than the high-flying Liberals did. Now we know why.   
   Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon has made regular use of a secret   
   fleet of government executive jets and not disclosing his trips as   
   requited by cabinet rules. The NDP uncovered his use of the planes,   
   including six trips aboard a sleek Citation C-550 executive jet. The   
   Department of National Defense estimates the use of such planes at   
   $9,000 an hour. If it’s appropriate, why are they hiding it?   
      
   Cost to ordinary taxpayers: $9,000 an hour   
   	   
   3. Harper’s Clairvoyant Coiffeur   
      
   When he was a Reform Party MP, Harper bolted from the party after   
   Preston Manning insisted on a party-paid clothing allowance. So it’s   
   all the more surprising that as Prime Minister, Harper travels with a   
   taxpayer-funded image advisor. The advisor doesn’t just make with the   
   Dippidy-Do for Harper, she also reportedly talks with the angels. Harper   
   has refused to explain how much he spends on the services of his image   
   advisor and sooth-sayer.   
      
   Cost to ordinary taxpayers: Reply hazy, try again.   
   	   
   4. Oda and the Mysterious Re-appearing Cheques   
      
   The Conservatives were elected on a promise to end pork-barrel politics.   
   But in November 2006, Heritage Minister Bev Oda was forced to cancel a   
   $250 a plate political fundraiser after it was learned that it was being   
   organized by Charlotte Bell — the head of regulatory affairs for   
   CanWest media – who was passing the hat among the very same media   
   companies that Oda regulates as minister. The back-pedaling   
   Conservatives hastly announced that the cheques from donors would be   
   returned. But only months ago, Oda’s riding association declared them   
   in their official fundraising report to Elections Canada for 2006.   
   	   
   5. Un-Conventional Fundraising   
      
   The Conservatives failed to report over $530,000 in donations to their   
   party from their 2005 Convention, including a donation by Stephen Harper   
   that was above the legal donation limit – in violation of the   
   Elections Act. Only when the scandal was made public did the   
   Conservatives admit wrong-doing and quietly repaid the funds. When the   
   Conservatives tried to change the law to make what they had done legal,   
   the NDP stopped them.   
   	   
   6. Driving Miss Lazy   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)