Thursday, September 29, 2005

Dingwall's Golden Handshake

David Dingwall lobbied when he wasn't registered, collected commissions he shouldn't have even when he was.

He was responsible for making change at the Mint, and he couldn't spare his own to pay for a pack of gum.

None of this will prevent him from getting a nice fat severance package--how fat, we don't know--on top of his $77,000 a year parliamentary pension.

Being Liberal means never having to say you're sorry.

Source: Toronto Star

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

September 29, 2005 Monte Solberg's blog:
Some things never change
Yeesh. Today we asked Scott Brison to acknowledge that the police had recently visited Public Works and had taken away over a hundred boxes of documents related to Sponsorship. Apparently the Minister had difficulty understanding the question because his reply had nothing to do with the question. How shocking that he wouldn't answer a direct question.

I raise this to point out what should be as obvious as the nose on my friend Peter Mackay's face (Peter tells the story of a friend who used to ask his kids if they would rather have a million dollars or Peter Mackay's nose full of nickels. Pretty funny). My point is that the Libs are still ducking around corners and hiding in shadows whenever all the ethics stuff comes up.

When David Dingwall's expenses at the mint come up they start tossing out delicious and irrelevant red herrings. Expenses?? How dare you question Mr Dingwall about his expenses because Mr. Dingwall has the mint making money. Personally I always thought making a monopoly profitable would be a lot easier than being profitable in an atmosphere of cut-throat competition, but then that's probably just my ignorance speaking.

But of course the profitability of the mint is not the issue.
The issue is whether or not Mr Dingwall is entitled to the expenses that he has claimed. The even larger point is that if the Libs had really figured out that government needs to be cleaned up then they would answer serious questions...well...seriously.

But the ducking and dodging makes me think that they still don't get it. Minister Brison's slipperry answer causes me to think the cynical thought that they still think that nothing is more important than protecting themselves. The problem is that someone someday will have to break that very natural pattern of ducking blame.

But then that would require a no nonsense approach to cleaning up government. As luck would have it I know a man who would give us that kind of government. His name is Stephen Harper.

posted by Monte at 5:23 PM