[columbo]

Starting off a thread here which I doubt will be of much interest to anyone beside's Pyritechips and myself, but for any Americans that do happen to take a look, read some of these articles, and ask yourself: "If my politicians showed this much blatant contempt for the concept of accountability to the public, would I continue to vote them into public office every election?"....

Columbo

[columbo]

'I am above politics': Clarkson

Last Updated Sat, 20 Sep 2003 10:37:40

OTTAWA - Despite controversy surrounding the cost of her upcoming tour to promote Canada abroad, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson will head to Moscow Sunday accompanied by a select group of 59 Canadians.

Clarkson's trips to Russia, Finland and Iceland will cost taxpayers close to $1 million.

The theme of Clarkson's tour is called the Modern North. She will be joined on her state visits by esteemed Canadians writers Michael Ondaatje and Yann Martel, musicians, film and television directors, businessmen and politicians.

Clarkson said this tour is part of her mandate to introduce Canada to the world, but some critics accused Clarkson of taking her well known friends, the cultural elite, on a high priced tour.

The trips have prompted the scrutiny of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates which is expected to launch an official examination into the Governor General's spending habits this Monday.

Clarkson herself will not, and by tradition cannot be asked to testify in a political setting.

"I am above politics," she said in an interview with CBC Newsworld. "And I don't mean to be above politics, I am above politics."

Also at issue is the dramatic increase of the Governor General's budget over the past four years.

It has risen from $11.7 million to more than $19 million.

From: http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/09/19/clarkson030919

[columbo]

Committee to probe Governor General's expenses
Last Updated Fri, 19 Sep 2003 9:29:13
OTTAWA - CBC News has learned that a House of Commons committee is planning to investigate the spending habits of Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson.

Liberal MP Judy Sgro and other MPs in the Commons committee that oversees government operations will begin the probe this fall.

It's the same committee that investigated the expenses of Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski.

He resigned three months ago as a result of the probe.

The MPs say the investigation of Clarkson was prompted by her planned trip to the world's polar regions.

Lavish trip

She will travel with about 60 politicians, cultural figures and celebrities, including her husband, author John Ralston Saul.

They 19-day trip will reportedly cost millions of dollars and will include wine tastings and state dinners.

"When the Governor General is the appointed head of state and represents Canada at functions they can't attend we don't have a problem with this," says Walter Robinson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

"But these kind of Ice Capades… it grates on taxpayers as a misuse of tax dollars."

Sgro says the investigation will go beyond the cost of the trip north and look into spending patterns in the Governor General's office.

"I think people would like a better understanding of some rationale on the expenditures there," she said.


Uh-oh....what if the committee forgets that Clarkson is "above politics"

[columbo]

Keep in mind, that these same MPs (and their PM), are the same people who felt that they deserved a 20% pay increase (with the PM getting a 42% yearly increase!)....

Wednesday April 29, 12:54 am Eastern Time

OTTAWA, April 28 (Reuters) - Amid cries of shame, Canada's Liberal government on Tuesday defeated a motion to expand compensation to victims of a long-running tainted blood scandal, narrowly averting a crisis which had threatened to topple the government.

The ruling Liberals defeated a Reform Party motion to overturn the government's partial compensation for hepatitis C victims 154 to 140.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien turned the vote into a confidence motion and said the government would be dissolved and a new election called if the opposition motion passed. Chretien returned from an historic trip to Cuba for the vote.

The tense vote ended an emotional day of raucous debate and demonstrations over the government's decision to award only partial compensation to Canadians infected with the sometimes fatal liver disease through tainted blood.

All Liberal members of Parliament voted against the motion, while all opposition members present in the House of Commons supported the motion. Seven members were absent or abstained from the vote.

The Liberals, re-elected to a second term last June, hold a slim 11-vote majority in the lower chamber of Canada's parliament.

Several Liberal backbenchers had said they doubted the fairness of the compensation package, but a stern crackdown on dissidents by party leaders quelled the dissent.

The right-wing Reform Party had urged Chretien to let his members vote freely so that the outcome would be, in effect, for or against the compensation package, not the government.

Some of the victims of the disease staged protests outside of Parliament to win expansion of the package that will compensate victims only between 1986 and 1990. The package ignores at least 20,000 people who contracted the disease before a screening test was introduced.


How are these Liberal pieces of crap representing the wishes of their constituents by automatically voting as they're told to by the PM? Is this how a democracy is supposed to work?

[columbo]

Here is someone background information on the pay increases I mentioned previously....It's an old article, but explains the situation well....KEEP IN MIND, THAT THESE ARE THE SAME POLITICIANS THAT AN IDIOTIC MAJORITY OF CANADIANS KEEP PUTTING IN OFFICE YEAR AFTER YEAR!

May 31, 2001
MPs' Pay Hikes Hard to Stomach
by Victor Vrsnik, Provincial Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Prime Minister Jean Chretien blinked first before awarding a multi-million dollar bail out package to NHL team owners last year. In a face-off with public opinion, the Liberals nixed the $20 million gift before the puck touched the ice.

Since then, federal politicians have found a safer place to park the money - in their personal bank accounts.

Federal politicians will soon vote to top up the parliamentary payroll by $10 million a year. Rank and file MPs make off like bandits cashing in on a 20% pay hike compared to an even greater 42% raise for the Prime Minister.

Never again will MPs toil away as underpaid serfs earning a measly $109,500. A $22,000 raise will elevate them form the depths of despair.

And the Prime Minister will no longer have to suffer the indignity of a $184,600 income. The shame of earning such a pittance of a salary will be erased with a $78,000 raise.

The richness of our country must be measured in how we treat our politicians. Members of Parliament have become society's latest class of victims to speak out against the injustice of their undervalued salaries and only the second richest pension plan in the land.

"The life of a politician is not an easy one," mused Ed Lumley, head of the compensation commission who recommended the hefty salary hikes. He's absolutely right. The rigors of service as a Member of Parliament should not be underestimated or overestimated.

By the same token, nurses, journalists, government employees and others are equally committed to public service and are subject to their own unique set of expectations, demands and work-place pressures.

Fat chance either government or the private sector would agree to a 20 to 40 percent wage hike for these professions. It would be dismissed as an unnecessary extravagance.

Another oft-cited defense of MP pay hikes is that their salaries were frozen for seven years in the 1990s. So what? If public servants were luckily enough not to lose their jobs in the 1990s, they probably suffered a wage rollback instead. The plight of private sector workers was even worse.

In any case, wasn't it the politicians themselves who amassed such a debt burden in the first place that only the shock treatment of fiscal restraint and downsizing could reverse?

This is the crux of my irritation with the overly generous MP pay hikes. It's the endless succession of feeble arguments, whining about 'hard work' and the double standard that sets MPs apart from the rest of Canadians forced to pay politicians their pay raises but excluded from the decision to approve them.

Take note that the Liberals chose to push salary reform in the middle of their term in office. To avoid self-serving optics, the government should have agreed to make the changes effective after the next federal election. At least the voters paying for the salary hikes would have a chance to pass judgement on the value of the price tag.

It's the culture of entitlement that inspires MPs to press for more from Canadians who could only dream of such riches and the four-years of guaranteed job security. The meaty wage hikes may be a hard act to follow but, in any case, form a benchmark that will undoubtedly be used to justify increased pay by public service unions down the road.

http://www.taxpayer.com/opinionedito...n/May31-01.htm

[columbo]

Thank God for the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation!

These guys make the Canadian Liberal's toss and turn at night, and wake up screaming in a cold sweat!

November 3, 2003

Manley Economic Statement...
Heavy on Data, Light on Direction

-Finance Minister fails to rein in program spending
-Canadian personal income tax burden still highest in G-7
-Debt reduction done on the backs of Canadian workers and
employers

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has responded to the Economic and Fiscal Update delivered this morning by Finance Minister John Manley before the House of Commons Finance Committee in Ottawa.

Federal spending track is unsustainable
"The updated numbers revealed today by Mr. Manley combined with past spending growth, confirm an alarming and unsustainable trend in program spending which started in 1997 and is projected to spiral upward until the end of the decade,” said CTF federal director Walter Robinson.

“Program spending is up 39% in seven years and is projected to jump 74% over 12 years through to 2009, and this is before Paul Martin’s on-the-record big spending promises are added to this tally,” added Robinson. “This spending track dwarfs the combined historic and projected rate of inflation and population growth … it is mathematically unsustainable.”

Canadians still languish under punishing personal income tax burden
“ Over the last decade and looking ahead, it is clear that Ottawa has become and will become even more reliant on personal income tax collections to feed its spending addiction,” noted Robinson. “The government’s own numbers contradict the government’s great 2000 tax cuts hype. When one measures the increasing contribution of federal income taxes to total government revenues, the feds will continue to tax hard work and wealth creation to fund a litany of spending commitments.”

Robinson added: “After a decade of the Chretien administration, our personal income tax burden as a percentage of the GDP is unchanged. So much for the era of tax cuts.”

Debt reduction on the backs of workers and employers
“While we acknowledge the reduction of our federal debt by $56 billion, this is mostly due to high Employment Insurance premiums which have over-taxed workers and employers to the tune of $45 billion and counting since the federal budget was balanced,” concluded Robinson. “Job killing payroll taxes have reduced our debt, not federal leadership.”


See this link for detailed charts, breaking down the numbers discussed in here at: http://www.taxpayer.com/newsreleases...vember3-03.htm

[bassetman]

Sounds like Jessie the Governor (Ventura) has moved to Canada!

[pyritechips]

Long standing governments with large margins of power over their opposition will, with time, fall into a smug, contemptable corruption.

But! What is the alternative? The PC party is virtually non-existant. The NDP have never regained the popularity they had under Broadbent. Neither the BQ or the Reform party represent Canada as a whole; they are both regional parties.

I'm getting sick of all the whining and snivelling by all the right winger red necks here in Alberta. By chance of geology they happen to be sitting on top of an oil reserve. They are culturally backward and for the most part ignorant of the rest of Canada. They have the lowest tax rate in Canada (Alberta is the only province that has no sales tax) and a perpetually oil-driven economy. I have been in all 10 of Canada's provinces and guess who whines and cries the loudest about how poorly they are treated by Ottawa (the Federal government) in particular and the rest of Canada in general.

I have a message for you Albert: Stop your friggen whining you goddamn spoiled brats! You are no better off than the nouveau riche Arab oil shieks, endowed with too much oil money and not enough brains. If it wasn't for oil do you know what Alberta would be like? A third rate beef and grain producing province like Saskatchewan!

I can't wait to get out of this souless, stinking excuse of a rat hole.

[angelize56]

I can't wait to get out of this souless, stinking excuse of a rat hole.

Now Jim...do you mean civilized debate or life in general? I wish my life was better for sure!

[columbo]

Originally posted by pyritechips:
Long standing governments with large margins of power over their opposition will, with time, fall into a smug, contemptable corruption.

But! What is the alternative? The PC party is virtually non-existant. The NDP have never regained the popularity they had under Broadbent. Neither the BQ or the Reform party represent Canada as a whole; they are both regional parties.

I'm getting sick of all the whining and snivelling by all the right winger red necks here in Alberta. By chance of geology they happen to be sitting on top of an oil reserve. They are culturally backward and for the most part ignorant of the rest of Canada. They have the lowest tax rate in Canada (Alberta is the only province that has no sales tax) and a perpetually oil-driven economy. I have been in all 10 of Canada's provinces and guess who whines and cries the loudest about how poorly they are treated by Ottawa (the Federal government) in particular and the rest of Canada in general.

I have a message for you Albert: Stop your friggen whining you goddamn spoiled brats! You are no better off than the nouveau riche Arab oil shieks, endowed with too much oil money and not enough brains. If it wasn't for oil do you know what Alberta would be like? A third rate beef and grain producing province like Saskatchewan!

I can't wait to get out of this souless, stinking excuse of a rat hole.

True, the PC party is far too divided to constitute itself as a reasonable alternative.

Why do you think voter turn-out is so pathetic? People feel like they have no other option but to just not vote.

Though I definitely think we should review and alter the structure of our government. I personally feel that "the popular vote" is really ignored. I'm not just referring to the Federal level either. I'd like to see changes made to the structure at the Provincial level too.

I think a fair amount of "regionalism" is to be expected though. I mean, depending on geography, demography, etc. you're going to have some centralization or "localized" ideologies. Fishing rights, for example, are going to mean a lot more to those out East, than say, your average wheat farmer in Saskatchewan.

I think when you accept that it's really the issues that drive (and divide) the parties and their respective ideologies, then regional party support starts to make a lot more sense.

I just wish there was a national alternative to the Liberals.

[Callisto]

Originally posted by columbo:
I just wish there was a national alternative to the Liberals.

Do you feel the federal government plays an important role in our lives ?
When I look at things that concern me the most, such as the environment, health care, employment - most of these are within provincial jurisdiction. By contrast, Ottawa seems to be little more than a cheque-clearing center, distributing funds to the provinces who actually run the programs that affect ordinary Canadians.

Wow, a Canadian issues thread

[GoneForNow]

Chretien returned from an historic trip to Cuba for the vote.

I think I might have found the cause of your problems.

I mean if you're having economic problems, getting advice from Castro would not be very high on my list of people to talk to.

[Paquadez]

Oh, I don't know, GB.

If your objective is to carry on ruining what is basically an excellent and self-sustaining mineral rich economic state, who better to assist you make it even worse?

Paq

[columbo]

I mean if you're having economic problems, getting advice from Castro would not be very high on my list of people to talk to.

If your objective is to carry on ruining what is basically an excellent and self-sustaining mineral rich economic state, who better to assist you make it even worse

Bingo....except you left out the "while lining your pockets with the money of your citizenry".

The worst part is, it's not like Chretien and his cronies staged a "Canadian Revolution"* or anything....They've been in power for the last 12 years thanks to the peeople

*Can you imagine how ridiculous a "Canadian revolution" would be?

Coup Leader: "Uh, excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister?"
P.M.: "Yeah, how's it going bud?"
Coup Leader: "Eh, not bad, not bad, ya know? Uh, listen, uh, do you think it'd be alright if you stepped down and me and my buddies took over for a while?"
P.M: "Oh, sure, yeah, no problem no problem...Uh, let me see, uh, here are the keys to the house."
Coup Leader: "You're sure you don't mind, eh? I don't want to bother you if it's a problem, ya know."
P.M.: "Oh yeah, no no no, it's no problem at all. It's no problem."
Coup Leader: "You're sure now, eh?"
P.M.: "Yep."
Coup Leader: "OK, hey, thanks a lot eh? I really appreciate it, ya know?"
P.M.: "Ah, don't worry about it. My pleasure."
Coup Leader: "Alright, take it easy eh?"
P.M.: "Yeah you too bud!"

[columbo]

Keep in mind that this scumbag was appointed to his position by Chretien himself....


OTTAWA - A Commons committee says it has lost confidence in the privacy commissioner after grilling him about his travel expenses.

George Radwanski, left, heads into the committee room with his lawyer

After a closed-door meeting on Friday with George Radwanski and his lawyer, the committee called for an audit of his office's financial practices.

In an interim report to the House, the committee said it was unanimous in its concerns about the way Radwanski has managed his expenses. It also said Radwanski had "deliberately misled" the committee.

However, members of the operations committee stopped short of calling for his resignation.

Hearings began into reports that the privacy watchdog spent nearly $100,000 in the past year.

Committee members said Radwanski had not been accurate or open with them about certain documents he provided for scrutiny.

One member, Liberal Paul Szabo, said it appears Radwanski, or his staff, tried to cover up his travel costs by using whiteout material on some of the expense forms.

Part 2 coming up......