A rchive Date
[ 26-12-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/steward.html
Dirty dancing, political style
By HARTLEY STEWARD -- Toronto Sun
May 26, 2002
One thing has become clear in the Groupe Everest advertising scandal from which the federal Liberals are so desperately trying to extricate themselves: a small group - way smaller than it should be - shares in the spoils of government.
This privileged group is composed, on one side, of government representatives, mostly cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats, with the odd prime minister thrown in. On the other side are the suppliers of everything from advertising advice and services to office supplies.
They are engaged in a dirty little dance designed to avoid rules and regulations and, sometimes, the law of the land. They trip the light fantastic around ethical considerations, scratching each other's backs sensuously. They waltz past conflict of interest rules with the greatest of ease.
In the end, they go home with the guys who brung them.
You, most likely, aren't part of this group.
Nor are you likely to become part of it now. If you haven't spent a lifetime positioning yourself to take part in this lucrative scam, if you have not been busy ferreting out the guys who write the cheques, greasing palms and slapping backs these many years, sorry, you are not a member of this club.
This is a tight circle; first-name, how's-your-mother, sorry-to-hear-it sort of relationships. It is these people with whom your government - on any number of levels - has agreed to share your tax dollars. Millions of your tax dollars.
Lame advice
These are the people who get the contracts you've been reading so much about in the newspapers. The advertising contracts which pay millions for a few pages of lame advice. The $500,000 reports, literally so thin they get lost in government files.
But there are hundreds you haven't heard about. Research projects on subjects so obscure, so arcane no one will ever read them. Surveys on subjects of use only to political parties in search of votes. Expert opinions on everything from the price of gas to the compensation of civil servants. Studies, billed monthly, that go on year after year.
These are, in the main, the means by which a government rewards its friends and supporters. Firms which make large campaign donations get the best projects. If no need exists, why, one is invented. Many government departments don't bother with the tendering process, which is supposed to be mandatory, because the "winner" has been decided before the terms have been drawn.
Many of the participants in the dance have become close friends. You can see them in the capital's watering holes and the fine restaurants across the Ottawa River. They are a family. Many of them know each other's wives and even children. They holiday at the same resorts.
They drink at the same bars after work. Those who are not presently in Ottawa or environs, unable to do their business or exchange their favours over a rare steak and dry martini, are linked by a string of Rolodexes across the country and identical phone numbers programmed into expensive cellphones.
It is good reason, in a democracy, to change governments on a regular basis. The longer a party is in power, the more addicted the government - and its friends - become to the dance. And the more crowded the dance floor. Our guys now have a heel speed that would put the world's best flamenco dancers to shame.
Minister of Public Works Don Boudria is a case in point. Brought in as the Mr. Clean to deflect the criticism from a department mired in scandal, he was on the job only a matter of months before the opposition discovered he was as confused as the last guy when it came to conflict of interest.
He accepted a weekend for himself and his family at the country mansion of the president of advertising firm Groupe Everest, one of his department's largest suppliers. In the months following that weekend, for which Boudria says his family paid $800, the Department of Public Works awarded $1 million in contracts to the company. Was Boudria personally involved in this? I doubt it, but the optics are terrible.
The prime minister has asked that opposition parties show more respect for government. He feels their constant accusations of corruption, their insistent criticism of his government's curious practices, are detrimental to the entire system and are creating public cynicism.
Hard to think of another word, though, isn't it?
Steward appears Tuesdays and Sundays. E-mail: hartleysteward@canoemail.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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