Did Chretien know?

[Makhno]

Paul Martin is taking a lot of heat these days with the sponsorsip scandal, while the scandal's architect, Jean Chretien, is nowhere to be seen (surfacing only to confirm that he no longer thinks these days).

This weekend a news story broke that Jean Pelletier, Chretien's former chief of staff and one of his closest confidantes, made regular phone calls to the head of the sponsorship program, imposing political pressure on how millions of dollars should be handed out. The source of the story is a staffer who worked in the office that administered the money.

The former prime minister says 'I had nothing to do with it".
Yet his chief of staff was constantly calling the bureaucrats tending to the program .

Do you think Chretien knew what was going on?

 

[qwerty]

I suspect that he did know, however I'd still vote for him.

 

[WiYd]

I guess he will not have much of a "legacy" now.. there will just be memories of the most corrupt government in the history of canada... I guess he learned those tricks in the Trudeau era.

 

[qwerty]

Hifi, if you think any other party will be any less corrupt than the liberals you are completely lost! Who would you rather have the conservatives, I know I don't want to pay more taxes, or the NDP who would spend ridiculous amounts of our tax dollars on wasted projects, which would create more jobs but at the expense of growing our national debt at an enormous rate.

I absolutely agree that the Liberals are corrupt, any party you put in power will find a way to steal your money. I feel that under Cretiens leadership we are a stronger country with more freedoms than when he first took over, and please feel free to offer examples of how you think I am wrong.

 

[Makhno]

Any increase in 'freedom" under Chretien has been solely as a result of litigatioon under the Charte of Rights and Freedoms. The government simply reacted to decisions as they were made.

As for being a "stronger" (by this I am assuming you don't mee militarily, as Chretien's support for the military has made it a standing joke) Canada fell from third to eighth place on the United Nations' annual human development report in 2003 after spending most of the 1990s in the top spot. Legacy, eh?

Chretien's legacy will be his record of corruption, from Shawinigate to the recent sponsorship scandal. It does not strengthen the country to have its inhabitants believing its rulers are corrupt.

Some examples?

1. The current sponsorship scandal that ran from 1997 to 2001 included at least $100 million skimmed off the top in unneeded commissions to Jean’s friends. The litany of payoffs and schemes that lined the pockets of connected Liberal supporters would make a mafia don envious. Jean Chretien’s response: So what if a few million was stolen, it was all in a good cause.”

2. An additional $793 million in federal advertising spending over a five-year period was rife with Liberal rule breaking with commissions and fees paid for no work.

3. Jean Chretien’s interference in BDB loans to the Auberge Grand-Mere.

4. The HRDC grant boondoggle in which $1billion was unaccounted for after grants were being vetted by Liberal-party officials in Quebec, and (surprise) Liberal supporters were frequently the beneficiaries of huge grant dollars

5. As he then was Finance Minister Paul Martin’s interests in Canadian Steamship Lines and how they were not truly in a blind trust. He manges to underestimate the amount of money it received in federal contract by a factor of over $100 million (or as the Liberals call it, petty cash)

6. George Radwanski’s spendthrift ways as Privacy Commissioner (A guys gotta eat, eh...).

7. $101 million for Chretien’s private jets while the Sea Kings are literally falling from the sky. The Liberals overruled its own military - which operates the planes - which said new ones weren't needed until at least 2010.They also broke their own rules on contracts by acquiring the jets without putting out a public tender

8. The $2 billion gun registry, initially promised to cost $2 million.