Tories Double Standard Experts
When the federal Tories were the opposition party, they couldn’t get enough of ‘accountability’. They courted her, wooed her, and took her down the aisle, swearing to protect her. Now the honeymoon is over and the Tories could care less about accountability. She’s just the worn down, neglected housewife who is nothing more than an albatross around the neck of the Tories.
The Liberals were consistently the target of Tory election time ads, which portrayed the Liberals as amoral, corrupt Quebeckers who would take your tax payer money and squander it on their precious ad firms to appease Quebec and the unilateral minded separatists. Likewise, during question and answer period in the House of Commons, everything was about being ‘accountable’ to the Canadian public and transparency in government transactions; something the opposition Tories saw the Liberals as lacking.
Fast forward more than a year. The Tories, under Prime Minister Harper are in power, though they rule over a minority government, which has has the power of a feeble gnat.
They have come under fire for conduct related to fees paid to delegates in the 2005 convention.
The Conservative government is proposing to open a loophole in its vaunted accountability act by declaring that party convention fees not be counted as political contributions under the law.
The Conservative government is proposing to open a loophole in its vaunted accountability act by declaring that party convention fees not be counted as political contributions under the law.
The Tories are fine with accusing their political rivals of rampant corruption, accepting bribes, avoiding being accountable and side-stepping any attempts for transparency. However, when the tables are turned, the Tories don’t like being wrong and will change the rules to suit them, even though this is contrary to the ‘accountability’ and ‘transparency’ principles they had pimped out during the last federal election.
They now want to change the accountability act to add that “payment … of a fee to participate in a registered party’s convention is not a contribution” as long as the fees don’t exceed the cost of running the convention.
If this was any other party asking for such a change, though it is unlikely, the Tories would be the first to jump on board and start crying foul. They are unable to play by their own rules and elect to follow a trendy American line of thought: “do as I say, not as I do”.
The amendment would be done to an act that was promised during the last election. The Accountability Act was to seek to fix what the Liberals did, but, instead it seems to be permitting the Tories to act like Liberals under the guise that they have saw through an election promise, as shallow as it is.
It should be noted however, that the other parties are crying foul on this Tory slip up and reciprocating Tory election time rhetoric to drive home that hypocritical behaviour will not go unnoticed, no matter how much one party proclaims to be ‘ethical’ and ‘accountable’.
“The Tories seem to be now admitting that they have broken the law,” said Steven MacKinnon, national director of the Liberal party.
“They’re trying to use the blunt instrument of Parliament as a form of pardon for their violation of the law and trying to fix these mistakes retroactively.”
Even NDP MP Democrat Pat Martin, one of the accountability act’s most vocal supporters, said the Conservatives are pulling a fast one.
“They’re trying to prove the point after the fact,” Martin said. “I guess that’s the advantage of being the ruling party — you can correct your mistakes by statute after the fact. “We won’t support it.”
If politicians start calling bullshit on something that would otherwise benefit them, something is fishy.
At least the Tories won’t be in for longer if they keep up with this current line of hypocrisy. The Canadian public may be willing to try something new but they are impatient when something doesn’t go their way. I guess that little time out that the Conservatives had during the 12+ year reign of the Liberals wasn’t enough. The Tories just didn’t learn. Perhaps another twelve years is in order…
Tories seek exemption for accountability act
Stumble It!
