A rchive Date
[ 19-08-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
|
[Hey, that's our money
By PAUL JACKSON - Calgary Sun
August 18, 2000
Prime Minister Jean Chretien's Liberals are getting into a spending mood again. They're planning to dump a lot of our money coast-to-coast to buy votes from the naive and foolish in the next federal election.
I say "our" money because, while the Liberal party itself will raise and spend $20-$30 million during the campaign, the Grits also intend to blow several billion of the federal taxpayers' money to get themselves re-elected. It's dishonest, it's cynical, it's disgraceful.
But, hey, they're Liberals. What more do you expect? Remember Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart? Even without an election in the offing, she doled out some $1 billion of our money in what is now seen as straight-up pork barrel politics. Stewart's job-creation scheme basically created jobs for Liberal hangers-on. Particularly fortunate were friends of the prime minister. In the U.S., Stewart, Chretien et al would be under criminal investigation. Actually, some of Chretien's friends are.
Chretien's team has already pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Atlantic Canada in recent weeks, and we all know that after pillaging health-care funds for several years, Federal Health Minister Allan Rock is all set to go in as a white knight with billion-dollar bailouts to the provinces. That it's simply money the Grits stole from the provinces in the first place, will be glossed over.
So on one side, the Liberals' big business pals will be urged to cough up the $20-$30 million to run the campaign - with the subtle threat that, if they don't hand over the loot, there will not only be no more government grants, but maybe even tough legislation for this particular industry, or that particular cause.
On the other side, the dumb federal taxpayers will see their contributions blown.
Now, $20-$30 million is small potatoes compared to financing U.S. election campaigns, but it's still a lot of money in our neck of the political woods. So what about Stockwell Day's Canadian Alliance, Joe Clark's Progressive Conservatives and Alexa McDonough's New Democrats?
The New Democrats are the easiest to sum up.
The party is now basically irrelevant in federal politics - it no longer represents the working man and woman. Its policies are designed to appease environmentalists, gay rights groups, feminists and vegetarians. While union members vote for other parties, their union bosses will use millions of their dues to support NDP candidates who are as far away from the hapless working stiff as anyone can be.
The NDP won't raise anything close to $25-30 million, but if it spends $10 million, it can put on a somewhat credible show. The Alliance will have no worries about money - Premier Mike Harris' team will see to that.
Prominent Toronto lawyer Robert J. Dechert, who has raised funds for Harris' two provincial campaigns, boasted to me personally he can deliver as much as $20 million to the Alliance.
Now, perhaps you understand why Day is always showing up at banquets honouring Harris. While the Ontario premier won't endorse any federal party openly, his fund-raisers are already working at breakneck speed to pull in that $20 million. With $20 million as a base for the Alliance, the rest is easy
The federal Tories are in deep trouble in this area. They're already $7 million in debt, and the banks aren't in a mood to loan them more. The corporate world? Business generosity goes to political parties with a chance of winning. Businessmen want results. Clark's Tories have no chance of delivering the results business would find impressive.
Think back to when Preston Manning ran the Reform party - its corporate donations were paltry, to say the least. So the PCs are in a quickly squeezing financial vise: They can't borrow more money, and they can't realistically expect to raise an iota of what they need to run a campaign equal to the Liberals or Alliance.
Maybe that's why some PCers are now talking about running joint candidates with the Alliance - something Clark has vowed he'll never do.
Jackson, associate editor of the Sun, can be reached at paul.jackson@cal.sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|