Not really calling you partisan ... but when Harris ran a shitty government it's still being brought up. As far as I'm concerned every government in Ontario since the late 80's does not have much to be proud of.
Every government is going to have it's ups and down ... it's how those down time are dealt with and no government in Ontario did a particularly great job ... but Mcguinty is worst by far ... imo ... he had record tax revenues in his first term and spent every dime of of it ...
As far as me being a conservative ... I don't label myself and if were to I am definitely fiscally conservative. I've stated before imo government massive deficits are a bad a thing, in 10 years the liberals have nearly doubled Ontario's debt :fp:. All that money future governments are going to have to pay in debt repayment and servicing the debt is just going to be brutal. They were banking on the manufacturing recovering . Those revenues they enjoyed up till 2008 are likely gone for ever.
i'm not sure how you can evaluate the legacy of his work without bringing into account the state in which he inherited the gov't ... when you factor in a global economic crisis ... the fact our dollar is ridiculously high pretty much killing manufacturing (which was our economic base) ... it's not that easy ...
i will gladly point to their failures (which are huge) but objectively, you have to look at the whole picture ...
how are you supposed to revamp the manufacturing sector when our dollar sits close to parity with the US?
Getting some vacation time this summer? My two-week break starts today and I couldn’t wait. I’ve got two more weeks coming to me in August and September and I treasure every warm summer day.
If we were MPPs sitting in the Ontario legislature, however, our summer break would have started on Wednesday, with 11 weeks of nothing but sunshine and barbecuing stretching out ahead of us past Labour Day.
June 12 to Sept. 11 – not a bad little vacation for those who can get it, eh? Even teachers don’t get that much. It’s even juicier when you realize MPPs just got back from their last extended vacation in March, and the last break was more than four months long.
Three months of the last break were actually a prorogue, called rather hastily by former premier Dalton McGuinty when the heat over his cancelled gas plants started to become unbearable and he quit as Liberal leader rather than face opposition questions.
McGuinty never faced the Legislature as leader again, and made only a couple of appearances at his Queen’s Park bench afterward. When he quit his seat this week the opposition mantra instantly became that at the end, McGuinty ran away from accountability “with his tail between his legs.”
“It’s proroguing with a different name – a recess,” PC House Leader Jim Wilson said of the latest break. “It’s unheard of . . . so far the public hasn’t caught on.”
Proroguing didn’t used to be a dirty word in Canadian politics. But federal Liberals made it so when Stephen Harper called one a few years ago, so now it’s an insult flung with abandon.
The length of the Liberal breaks isn’t unheard of in Ontario. Bob Rae’s NDP government took even longer breaks, I’m told. What’s unusual is that Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government has chosen to do so little legislative work in between sittings.
Normally, according to Wilson, the work of as many as eight legislative committees would continue to take place during a recess, even without the house sitting. Currently there is only one, the investigation into the gas plant mess.
The Tories tried to get a couple of extra committees set up before Wynne called the break, to no avail. The NDP wouldn’t agree to the extra work, they say. PC party attempts to set up committee investigations into developmental disabilities and the billion-dollar Ornge helicopter scandal were both rebuffed.
The committee looking into improper chemo drug dosages was suspended before the break, so it won’t be meeting during the recess, either. “Nothing is going on at Queen’s Park – again,” says PC leader Tim Hudak.
”It’s disappointing … the Liberals’ expensive and reckless spending is putting us deeply in debt.”
If Ontario’s deficit is important – and many voters think it is, since it’s about three times larger per capita than the one Ottawa is running – then you should know that the Wynne government will put Ontario $2.7 billion further into debt during their summer recess.
Officially, Ontario’s current deficit is pegged at $11.7 billion per year, or $32.5 million per day. But it’s difficult to imagine it won’t be higher, given the expensive contract settlements Wynne has given to teachers, provincial police, liquor store employees and probably whoever steps up next asking for a raise.
But back to McGuinty: The former premier announced he was resigning from the premier’s office on Oct. 15, 2012. But he didn’t resign as MPP from his Ottawa seat until June 12 this week, continuing to draw his annual salary of $208,974 during the eight months he stopped work.
That’s $139,316 in unearned salary McGuinty decided to draw for a job he had quit – which no doubt helped pad out his severance of $313,500, which he will now finally collect.
No doubt the Liberals didn’t want McGuinty to quit and leave another empty seat – not after the byelection drubbing they took last September. That loss cost them a majority government.
We can’t begrudge McGuinty the severance because MPPs don’t receive gold-plated, indexed pensions any more. The severance is much, MUCH cheaper for taxpayers. So rather than slam MPPs for taking them we should applaud the millions in pensions we’re saving for each one who leaves office.
But I fail to see how McGuinty’s pay-for-no-work scheme is any different than Canada’s federal senators claiming for housing and travel expenses they weren’t entitled to.
Senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin have paid back what they took without justification, and Sen. Mac Harb probably will, too. Shouldn’t McGuinty have to give us back that eight months’ pay he got for no work?
What a joke ... Corruption at its finest,
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
There are so many. To rework a standout line from Hamlet: When scandals come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions. In these rich, mesmerizing, disgusting, toxic times we may call Scandalpalooza, it is hard to know where to look, which spectacle at what level of government on which to feast our horrified eyes.
The Rob Ford/Toronto Star cage-match is like some zany humiliating mock soap opera that has burst its bounds, something began as a comedy which has veered into strange and ominious regions of absurdity. In Ottawa, it’s pick-a-Senator-a-day time. Evidently, Mike Duffy is finally being granted a spell and it’s Pamela Wallin’s turn in the grim spotlight. I returned back to Toronto from a trip to the unbroken innocence and 24 hour sunlight of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories only to find Peter Mansbridge interviewing Wallin over her “carelessness” with expense accounts, paybacks of close to $40,000 and possibly more to come. It was, for her, classic scandal “management.”
There are actually professions who specialize in that now, which if nothing else tells us how frequent public misbehaviour has become. It now supports a boutique industry of people who work to get the rich and powerful out of trouble of their own making.
I don’t know if Wallin employs any such wizards. But certainly in the Mansbridge interview, she followed the now-standard procedures: be upfront, confess “errors and mistakes,” adopt a sad, apologetic tone. Put on a Feel-My-Pain face. Repeat, till it sounds very much like an old-fashioned prayer, how sorry you are. Sens. Brazeau and Harb were no doubt taking notes.
Yet all these worthy scandals can’t claim the gold. That goes to this week’s once-premier, the three-term, demure-as-a-church mouse Dalton McGuinty.
For connoisseurs of outrageous public behaviour, McGuinty in many ways is and always has been a huge disappointment. He has less edge than a marshmallow. His presence is almost eerily understated: when he enters a room it is as if there is one less person in it. His public speeches have less fervour than dry cleaning instructions.
Yet in the stuff that really counts, in putting a real dent into public confidence, and — during the course of an election, mind you — turning part of the management of a province into a partisan manoeuvre, Departing Dalton is King of the Sad Pile.
Duffy may give better television clips as he scurries through a kitchen avoiding reporters. Wallin may be hypnotic under fire. Mayor Ford and his brother have a dark, almost fearsome flamboyance. But McGuinty’s play with the gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, their cancellation at huge cost for potential electoral gain — this stands, in its substance, alone. Only quite recently we have learned that aides in the-then premier’s office deleted emails covering the transactions, which raises the original sin to a quite new level.
McGuinty delivered himself of the Quote of the Century on resigning: he leaves “with his idealism intact.” How wonderful. What of the public’s idealism? No comment on that was forthcoming.
In the ordinary course of things, if a politician were to offer, say, a thousand dollars of his own money to an individual in exchange for that individual’s vote, it would be seen for what it was: a bribe. But if a government, while campaigning, with partisan intent, spends hundreds of millions in the hope of influencing a riding’s vote, that was just another day in McGuinty’s government. And when the evidence vanishes? Mere carelessness!
The gas plant cancellation is the truly big scandal of our time. It, by far, involves the largest disbursement of public monies in a dubious manner. The deletion of the emails is very close to sinister. But it was McGuinty’s casual conduct during the whole affair that truly stands out. Yet it was that very same manner that has — so far — spared him.
His successor, Premier Kathleen Wynne, is now on shaky moral ground . She is premier, in part, because the Liberals used this highly questionable tactic to earn their narrow win. The honourable thing to do would be for her to call an election on just this issue — and call it now. Sadly, we live in times when doing the honourable thing is a wisp of forlorn hope, as opposed to a realistic expectation.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Charity asks Trudeau to return $20,000 speaking fee
Byline: CHRIS MORRIS Legislature Bureau
A charitable organization trying to raise money for a seniors’ home in Saint John is asking federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to please send back the $20,000 it paid him for a fundraising event that flopped.
The Grace Foundation paid Trudeau $20,000 in speaking fees last year as it launched a campaign to raise badly needed funds for the elderly residents of the Church of St. John and St. Stephen Home Inc. in the Port City.
… The organization lost $21,000 on the Trudeau speech last June.
… the Grace Foundation wrote Trudeau in March, asking him to send back the $20,000.
“A refund of the fees charged for your speaking engagement to the Grace Foundation would meet our needs and would provide a positive public impression,” states the March 6 letter, obtained by the Telegraph-Journal.
Hossak said Trudeau has yet to reply to the letter. Trudeau’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
He now says he'll pay the money back to any charity that paid him to speak.
Post edited by lukin2006 on
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Members of Parliament just got a raise and an increase to their travel expense accounts, but they say schlepping to and from Ottawa isn’t all champagne and caviar.
On March 25, the House of Commons board of internal economy voted to increase the limit for certain MP travel-related expenses to $28,000, about six per cent more than the previous limit of $26,238. A few days later, a freeze on MPs’ salaries that was put into effect during the recession came to an end, raising their base pay to $160,200 from $157,731.
This comes at a time when expenses for MPs and senators are under scrutiny. An accounting firm is auditing claims for residency expenses filed by four senators, three of whom – Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau – have left the Conservative caucus.
Jeff Watson, the Conservative MP for Essex, said some context is necessary. The travel expense allowance may have increased but, overall, the government is working toward cutting $30 million from the House of Commons’ base budget by 2015, he said.
In addition, all that parliamentary business travel puts a real dent in the pocketbook.
“We are mindful of overall cost cutting while being reflective of some of the real costs of being a Member of Parliament,” Watson said. “Maybe certain categories are being enhanced, but the overall direction is to bring administration down.”
It’s true that MPs have certain expenses the average worker doesn’t have – although the many Windsorites working out west while supporting families here would be able to relate. Members of Parliament split their time between Parliament Hill and their constituencies, which means they either need to rent an apartment in Ottawa or rack up some serious hotel bills.
And while the allowance for accommodations, meals and other expenses increased, the amount of money MPs can spend on plane tickets and other modes of travel has been cut. Watson said he and his staff have saved a lot of money by travelling by land rather than air.
In the year ending in April of 2012, Watson came very close to the limit of his travel expense allowance, charging $26,151.95. Joe Comartin (NDP – Windsor-Tecumseh), who said he was unable to comment because of his position as deputy speaker, came in a few hundred dollars under that at $25,716.51.
Brian Masse (NDP – Windsor West) charged $20,262.93 – significantly less than both the limit and his two fellow Windsor region members. He said Comartin’s position as deputy speaker means he has to travel more than Masse does – “I just travel for what I need, for business.”
Comartin’s deputy speaker position also means he makes more than Masse and Watson. Effective April 1, Comartin receives an additional $39,800 in salary plus a $1,500 rent allowance for his deputy speaker duties.
Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau recently announced a four-point plan to make MPs’ and senators’ expenses more transparent. He proposed opening meetings of the all-party board that makes decisions about MP expense limits, requiring MPs to file public quarterly reports on how they spend their office and travel budgets and requiring performance audits of the House of Commons and the Senate every three years.
Watson said he supports the proposals. “I think they form the basis of a pretty good, broad way of handling MP expenses.”
$160 k + expenses for doing what exactly? Besides the obvious fucking of the average Canadian. A freeze in wages that has been in effect since the recession ... it appears the politicians never suffered the effects of the recession ... and the recession is over? oh thats right things like the unemployment rate and inflation are just a bunch of bullshit numbers that don't mean shit.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Pleeeeease spare me the dramatics ... McGuinty prorogued queens park for most of last winter, Harper did it in 2008. The liberals did it to avoid the auditors report on the sponsorship scandal. It's a tool at politicians disposal and they use it. We need reform ... all political parties suck.
Pleeeeease spare me the dramatics ... McGuinty prorogued queens park for most of last winter, Harper did it in 2008. The liberals did it to avoid the auditors report on the sponsorship scandal. It's a tool at politicians disposal and they use it. We need reform ... all political parties suck.
Dramatic? Isn't this a thread about Canadian politics?
I also understand how prorogation works but you tell me how it's possible for you to decide when you go back to work while still collecting a paycheck?
And Harper made this an issue when he prorogued parliament to hold on to power in a minority government. Every time he does it from here on out I will be very suspicious.
Dramatic? Isn't this a thread about Canadian politics?
I also understand how prorogation works but you tell me how it's possible for you to decide when you go back to work while still collecting a paycheck?
And Harper made this an issue when he prorogued parliament to hold on to power in a minority government. Every time he does it from here on out I will be very suspicious.
Is this for the good of the party? Or for Canada?
definitely proroguing to avoid senate scandal stuff ... what is interesting is that he has said he will run in the 2015 election ... which is probably why he is doing this now ... if he wasn't running he probably wouldn't care as much ...
Pleeeeease spare me the dramatics ... McGuinty prorogued queens park for most of last winter, Harper did it in 2008. The liberals did it to avoid the auditors report on the sponsorship scandal. It's a tool at politicians disposal and they use it. We need reform ... all political parties suck.
Dramatic? Isn't this a thread about Canadian politics?
I also understand how prorogation works but you tell me how it's possible for you to decide when you go back to work while still collecting a paycheck?
And Harper made this an issue when he prorogued parliament to hold on to power in a minority government. Every time he does it from here on out I will be very suspicious.
Is this for the good of the party? Or for Canada?
Like I said its a tool they all use ... And people are being dramatic about prorogation over this. Seriuosly when they decide to go work is the least of my concern. How about why to they get to decide how much they get paid? There pension? There benefits and perks?
Politicians have been given (or took to much power).
I'm a strong supporter of referendums ... It appears that people who want referendums are in the extreme minority. Going to a voting both every 4-5 years is not democracy, not even close. It's called electing your dictator and they all are dictators.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
i don't know if you guys listen to cbc ... but i was listening while driving last night and it was a repeat about an interview some guy from CSIS gave about expenses ... they were talking about huge expenses on sunglasses, leather jackets and ducattis ... i don't know if it was a joke or not but it was totally absurd ...
the guy representing CSIS basically said that the agents needed to look the part ... they couldn't show up with sweat pants ... that they'd look like a joke ... i didn't know "spies" had to look a certain way ... completely bizarre ...
i don't know if you guys listen to cbc ... but i was listening while driving last night and it was a repeat about an interview some guy from CSIS gave about expenses ... they were talking about huge expenses on sunglasses, leather jackets and ducattis ... i don't know if it was a joke or not but it was totally absurd ...
the guy representing CSIS basically said that the agents needed to look the part ... they couldn't show up with sweat pants ... that they'd look like a joke ... i didn't know "spies" had to look a certain way ... completely bizarre ...
This is exactly why I can't stand the government and am becoming increasingly opposed to income tax, the governments complete lack of accountability with taxpayers money. As far as these expenses ... I'm pretty sure bank tellers, bankers, car salesmen, business people, furniture salesman, insurance agents, etc are expected to dress and appear a certain way and probably have to foot their own wardrobe budget ... But because we've allowed to government free reign over us they just sit back and laugh at us ... Yet once again people got easily distracted by prorogation ... As far as I'm concerned we've been living in a dictatorship with the option to change dictators every so often.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I'm hard pressed to find a more incompetent bunch of do nothing politicians that this gang of thieves ... they stripped working people's contract, froze wages all the while saying how the coffers had run dry ... yet they somehow have no problem giving overpaid executives bonus just for completing a job they hired to do in the first place, and they seem to have no problem wasting a billion or so to save 2 seats in the GTA.
When this government took over revenues were in the 78 billion range and around 2012 revenues had increased increased to over 120 billion, thats a 40 plus billion increase in revenues, not to mention they've been borrowing an additional 15 + billion just to pay for all their pet projects.
fucking politicians ... the true leaches on society ... they leach off the productivity of others.
i always wonder why these hosers just don't come clean to begin with? ... i guess they cover up so much shit that doesn't get exposed that it makes it worthwhile ... won't affect his base ... but may lose some of the middle-right ...
Do you guys really think this has only happened under the current PM's watch? I for one don't ... but in 2015 you'll get a chance to elect Justin or Mulcair and we'll have a whole new set of scandals do deal with. Politicians are corrupt individuals ... some are just better at hiding it than others.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
At what point did Harper think Duffy would fit under the bus?
I was talking to someone else about this and I really wonder about this. I mean what kind of dirt does Duffy have on Harper. I mean why didn't Harper just burn him the minute the scandal broke (especially since he could make an example of him and use it as a way to push for senate reform)? Because the whole "my assistant will pay your debt but will tell people I knew nothing about it" plan sounds like the dumbest idea ever. Especially for someone with the kind of political experience Stephen Harper has.
Do you guys really think this has only happened under the current PM's watch? I for one don't ... but in 2015 you'll get a chance to elect Justin or Mulcair and we'll have a whole new set of scandals do deal with. Politicians are corrupt individuals ... some are just better at hiding it than others.
do you get annoyed when someone doesn't actually post things that continually allow you to repeat the same thing over and over again? ... no one remotely referred to this as a current PM thing ...
I was talking to someone else about this and I really wonder about this. I mean what kind of dirt does Duffy have on Harper. I mean why didn't Harper just burn him the minute the scandal broke (especially since he could make an example of him and use it as a way to push for senate reform)? Because the whole "my assistant will pay your debt but will tell people I knew nothing about it" plan sounds like the dumbest idea ever. Especially for someone with the kind of political experience Stephen Harper has.
what is really interesting is that Duffy still claims he did nothing wrong! ... like dude - you don't live in PEI!! ... you can't dispute that! ... and we all know nigel wright didn't write the check using his own personal funds ... pretty lame they used tax dollars to pay for it ...
I was talking to someone else about this and I really wonder about this. I mean what kind of dirt does Duffy have on Harper. I mean why didn't Harper just burn him the minute the scandal broke (especially since he could make an example of him and use it as a way to push for senate reform)? Because the whole "my assistant will pay your debt but will tell people I knew nothing about it" plan sounds like the dumbest idea ever. Especially for someone with the kind of political experience Stephen Harper has.
what is really interesting is that Duffy still claims he did nothing wrong! ... like dude - you don't live in PEI!! ... you can't dispute that! ... and we all know nigel wright didn't write the check using his own personal funds ... pretty lame they used tax dollars to pay for it ...
Graffiti spotted in these parts:
Anne of Green Gables and Mike Duffy...both fictional residents of PEI.
It boggles the mind that Harper didn't press eject on Duffy and Wallin. It's really hard to see how this could have turned out well for Harper, and I agree that normally he's far too savvy to let this happen. Wonder if we'll know before 2015?
Graffiti spotted in these parts:
Anne of Green Gables and Mike Duffy...both fictional residents of PEI.
It boggles the mind that Harper didn't press eject on Duffy and Wallin. It's really hard to see how this could have turned out well for Harper, and I agree that normally he's far too savvy to let this happen. Wonder if we'll know before 2015?
only explanation i got is what i wrote previously ... that they cover so much shit up - they are just used to doing it that way ..
in any case - as bad as the optics are on this ... it doesn't bother me as much as the other shit this gov't does in the face of democracy ... not sure why the opposition doesn't press them on the shit they are pulling elsewhere ...
Do you guys really think this has only happened under the current PM's watch? I for one don't ... but in 2015 you'll get a chance to elect Justin or Mulcair and we'll have a whole new set of scandals do deal with. Politicians are corrupt individuals ... some are just better at hiding it than others.
do you get annoyed when someone doesn't actually post things that continually allow you to repeat the same thing over and over again? ... no one remotely referred to this as a current PM thing ...
Nope ... But as far as scandals go in terms of tax dollars being abused this seems like pittance compared to how many billions that most governments waste ...
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
What do you guys want done with the senate anyways? You'll likely never see reform, it seems like we'll need a constitutional amendment ... Good luck with that.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Nope ... But as far as scandals go in terms of tax dollars being abused this seems like pittance compared to how many billions that most governments waste ...
yeah ... for sure ... see my other comments ... there are some real issues that should piss canadians off about this gov't ... this doesn't even make the top 10 ...
What do you guys want done with the senate anyways? You'll likely never see reform, it seems like we'll need a constitutional amendment ... Good luck with that.
abolished ... say bye bye patronage appointments ...
too bad harper reneged on this ... cuz between ndp and cons - it would have been a slam dunk ...
Graffiti spotted in these parts:
Anne of Green Gables and Mike Duffy...both fictional residents of PEI.
It boggles the mind that Harper didn't press eject on Duffy and Wallin. It's really hard to see how this could have turned out well for Harper, and I agree that normally he's far too savvy to let this happen. Wonder if we'll know before 2015?
only explanation i got is what i wrote previously ... that they cover so much shit up - they are just used to doing it that way ..
in any case - as bad as the optics are on this ... it doesn't bother me as much as the other shit this gov't does in the face of democracy ... not sure why the opposition doesn't press them on the shit they are pulling elsewhere ...
There really isn't a lot the opposition can do in the face of a majority, at least in Parliament, but I certainly agree with the sentiment. Anyway I think it well past time to abolish the senate, although it will be a bit messy and too many lawyers will be billing us. The whining about that out here will be awful, I suspect.
to abolish the senate would need a constitutional amendment ... in my quick and very brief search it seems that the senate needs to vote on a constitutional amendment, doubt they would vote to abolish themselves. So as nice abolishment sounds it seems unlikely to happen. Now i'm no where near a constitutional expert and there might be ways around it, but it could get very messy with lots of lawyers involved.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Comments
i'm not sure how you can evaluate the legacy of his work without bringing into account the state in which he inherited the gov't ... when you factor in a global economic crisis ... the fact our dollar is ridiculously high pretty much killing manufacturing (which was our economic base) ... it's not that easy ...
i will gladly point to their failures (which are huge) but objectively, you have to look at the whole picture ...
how are you supposed to revamp the manufacturing sector when our dollar sits close to parity with the US?
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/14 ... ail-first/
most dishonest fucking profession
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/06/14 ... al-summer/
Getting some vacation time this summer? My two-week break starts today and I couldn’t wait. I’ve got two more weeks coming to me in August and September and I treasure every warm summer day.
If we were MPPs sitting in the Ontario legislature, however, our summer break would have started on Wednesday, with 11 weeks of nothing but sunshine and barbecuing stretching out ahead of us past Labour Day.
June 12 to Sept. 11 – not a bad little vacation for those who can get it, eh? Even teachers don’t get that much. It’s even juicier when you realize MPPs just got back from their last extended vacation in March, and the last break was more than four months long.
Three months of the last break were actually a prorogue, called rather hastily by former premier Dalton McGuinty when the heat over his cancelled gas plants started to become unbearable and he quit as Liberal leader rather than face opposition questions.
McGuinty never faced the Legislature as leader again, and made only a couple of appearances at his Queen’s Park bench afterward. When he quit his seat this week the opposition mantra instantly became that at the end, McGuinty ran away from accountability “with his tail between his legs.”
“It’s proroguing with a different name – a recess,” PC House Leader Jim Wilson said of the latest break. “It’s unheard of . . . so far the public hasn’t caught on.”
Proroguing didn’t used to be a dirty word in Canadian politics. But federal Liberals made it so when Stephen Harper called one a few years ago, so now it’s an insult flung with abandon.
The length of the Liberal breaks isn’t unheard of in Ontario. Bob Rae’s NDP government took even longer breaks, I’m told. What’s unusual is that Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government has chosen to do so little legislative work in between sittings.
Normally, according to Wilson, the work of as many as eight legislative committees would continue to take place during a recess, even without the house sitting. Currently there is only one, the investigation into the gas plant mess.
The Tories tried to get a couple of extra committees set up before Wynne called the break, to no avail. The NDP wouldn’t agree to the extra work, they say. PC party attempts to set up committee investigations into developmental disabilities and the billion-dollar Ornge helicopter scandal were both rebuffed.
The committee looking into improper chemo drug dosages was suspended before the break, so it won’t be meeting during the recess, either. “Nothing is going on at Queen’s Park – again,” says PC leader Tim Hudak.
”It’s disappointing … the Liberals’ expensive and reckless spending is putting us deeply in debt.”
If Ontario’s deficit is important – and many voters think it is, since it’s about three times larger per capita than the one Ottawa is running – then you should know that the Wynne government will put Ontario $2.7 billion further into debt during their summer recess.
Officially, Ontario’s current deficit is pegged at $11.7 billion per year, or $32.5 million per day. But it’s difficult to imagine it won’t be higher, given the expensive contract settlements Wynne has given to teachers, provincial police, liquor store employees and probably whoever steps up next asking for a raise.
But back to McGuinty: The former premier announced he was resigning from the premier’s office on Oct. 15, 2012. But he didn’t resign as MPP from his Ottawa seat until June 12 this week, continuing to draw his annual salary of $208,974 during the eight months he stopped work.
That’s $139,316 in unearned salary McGuinty decided to draw for a job he had quit – which no doubt helped pad out his severance of $313,500, which he will now finally collect.
No doubt the Liberals didn’t want McGuinty to quit and leave another empty seat – not after the byelection drubbing they took last September. That loss cost them a majority government.
We can’t begrudge McGuinty the severance because MPPs don’t receive gold-plated, indexed pensions any more. The severance is much, MUCH cheaper for taxpayers. So rather than slam MPPs for taking them we should applaud the millions in pensions we’re saving for each one who leaves office.
But I fail to see how McGuinty’s pay-for-no-work scheme is any different than Canada’s federal senators claiming for housing and travel expenses they weren’t entitled to.
Senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin have paid back what they took without justification, and Sen. Mac Harb probably will, too. Shouldn’t McGuinty have to give us back that eight months’ pay he got for no work?
What a joke ... Corruption at its finest,
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Rex Murphy: Dalton departs
There are so many. To rework a standout line from Hamlet: When scandals come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions. In these rich, mesmerizing, disgusting, toxic times we may call Scandalpalooza, it is hard to know where to look, which spectacle at what level of government on which to feast our horrified eyes.
The Rob Ford/Toronto Star cage-match is like some zany humiliating mock soap opera that has burst its bounds, something began as a comedy which has veered into strange and ominious regions of absurdity. In Ottawa, it’s pick-a-Senator-a-day time. Evidently, Mike Duffy is finally being granted a spell and it’s Pamela Wallin’s turn in the grim spotlight. I returned back to Toronto from a trip to the unbroken innocence and 24 hour sunlight of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories only to find Peter Mansbridge interviewing Wallin over her “carelessness” with expense accounts, paybacks of close to $40,000 and possibly more to come. It was, for her, classic scandal “management.”
There are actually professions who specialize in that now, which if nothing else tells us how frequent public misbehaviour has become. It now supports a boutique industry of people who work to get the rich and powerful out of trouble of their own making.
I don’t know if Wallin employs any such wizards. But certainly in the Mansbridge interview, she followed the now-standard procedures: be upfront, confess “errors and mistakes,” adopt a sad, apologetic tone. Put on a Feel-My-Pain face. Repeat, till it sounds very much like an old-fashioned prayer, how sorry you are. Sens. Brazeau and Harb were no doubt taking notes.
Yet all these worthy scandals can’t claim the gold. That goes to this week’s once-premier, the three-term, demure-as-a-church mouse Dalton McGuinty.
For connoisseurs of outrageous public behaviour, McGuinty in many ways is and always has been a huge disappointment. He has less edge than a marshmallow. His presence is almost eerily understated: when he enters a room it is as if there is one less person in it. His public speeches have less fervour than dry cleaning instructions.
Yet in the stuff that really counts, in putting a real dent into public confidence, and — during the course of an election, mind you — turning part of the management of a province into a partisan manoeuvre, Departing Dalton is King of the Sad Pile.
Duffy may give better television clips as he scurries through a kitchen avoiding reporters. Wallin may be hypnotic under fire. Mayor Ford and his brother have a dark, almost fearsome flamboyance. But McGuinty’s play with the gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, their cancellation at huge cost for potential electoral gain — this stands, in its substance, alone. Only quite recently we have learned that aides in the-then premier’s office deleted emails covering the transactions, which raises the original sin to a quite new level.
McGuinty delivered himself of the Quote of the Century on resigning: he leaves “with his idealism intact.” How wonderful. What of the public’s idealism? No comment on that was forthcoming.
In the ordinary course of things, if a politician were to offer, say, a thousand dollars of his own money to an individual in exchange for that individual’s vote, it would be seen for what it was: a bribe. But if a government, while campaigning, with partisan intent, spends hundreds of millions in the hope of influencing a riding’s vote, that was just another day in McGuinty’s government. And when the evidence vanishes? Mere carelessness!
The gas plant cancellation is the truly big scandal of our time. It, by far, involves the largest disbursement of public monies in a dubious manner. The deletion of the emails is very close to sinister. But it was McGuinty’s casual conduct during the whole affair that truly stands out. Yet it was that very same manner that has — so far — spared him.
His successor, Premier Kathleen Wynne, is now on shaky moral ground . She is premier, in part, because the Liberals used this highly questionable tactic to earn their narrow win. The honourable thing to do would be for her to call an election on just this issue — and call it now. Sadly, we live in times when doing the honourable thing is a wisp of forlorn hope, as opposed to a realistic expectation.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://blogs.canoe.ca/davidakin/politic ... oney-back/
Charity asks Trudeau to return $20,000 speaking fee
Byline: CHRIS MORRIS Legislature Bureau
A charitable organization trying to raise money for a seniors’ home in Saint John is asking federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to please send back the $20,000 it paid him for a fundraising event that flopped.
The Grace Foundation paid Trudeau $20,000 in speaking fees last year as it launched a campaign to raise badly needed funds for the elderly residents of the Church of St. John and St. Stephen Home Inc. in the Port City.
… The organization lost $21,000 on the Trudeau speech last June.
… the Grace Foundation wrote Trudeau in March, asking him to send back the $20,000.
“A refund of the fees charged for your speaking engagement to the Grace Foundation would meet our needs and would provide a positive public impression,” states the March 6 letter, obtained by the Telegraph-Journal.
Hossak said Trudeau has yet to reply to the letter. Trudeau’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
He now says he'll pay the money back to any charity that paid him to speak.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Members of Parliament just got a raise and an increase to their travel expense accounts, but they say schlepping to and from Ottawa isn’t all champagne and caviar.
On March 25, the House of Commons board of internal economy voted to increase the limit for certain MP travel-related expenses to $28,000, about six per cent more than the previous limit of $26,238. A few days later, a freeze on MPs’ salaries that was put into effect during the recession came to an end, raising their base pay to $160,200 from $157,731.
This comes at a time when expenses for MPs and senators are under scrutiny. An accounting firm is auditing claims for residency expenses filed by four senators, three of whom – Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau – have left the Conservative caucus.
Jeff Watson, the Conservative MP for Essex, said some context is necessary. The travel expense allowance may have increased but, overall, the government is working toward cutting $30 million from the House of Commons’ base budget by 2015, he said.
In addition, all that parliamentary business travel puts a real dent in the pocketbook.
“We are mindful of overall cost cutting while being reflective of some of the real costs of being a Member of Parliament,” Watson said. “Maybe certain categories are being enhanced, but the overall direction is to bring administration down.”
It’s true that MPs have certain expenses the average worker doesn’t have – although the many Windsorites working out west while supporting families here would be able to relate. Members of Parliament split their time between Parliament Hill and their constituencies, which means they either need to rent an apartment in Ottawa or rack up some serious hotel bills.
And while the allowance for accommodations, meals and other expenses increased, the amount of money MPs can spend on plane tickets and other modes of travel has been cut. Watson said he and his staff have saved a lot of money by travelling by land rather than air.
In the year ending in April of 2012, Watson came very close to the limit of his travel expense allowance, charging $26,151.95. Joe Comartin (NDP – Windsor-Tecumseh), who said he was unable to comment because of his position as deputy speaker, came in a few hundred dollars under that at $25,716.51.
Brian Masse (NDP – Windsor West) charged $20,262.93 – significantly less than both the limit and his two fellow Windsor region members. He said Comartin’s position as deputy speaker means he has to travel more than Masse does – “I just travel for what I need, for business.”
Comartin’s deputy speaker position also means he makes more than Masse and Watson. Effective April 1, Comartin receives an additional $39,800 in salary plus a $1,500 rent allowance for his deputy speaker duties.
Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau recently announced a four-point plan to make MPs’ and senators’ expenses more transparent. He proposed opening meetings of the all-party board that makes decisions about MP expense limits, requiring MPs to file public quarterly reports on how they spend their office and travel budgets and requiring performance audits of the House of Commons and the Senate every three years.
Watson said he supports the proposals. “I think they form the basis of a pretty good, broad way of handling MP expenses.”
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/06/14 ... e-for-mps/
$160 k + expenses for doing what exactly? Besides the obvious fucking of the average Canadian. A freeze in wages that has been in effect since the recession ... it appears the politicians never suffered the effects of the recession ... and the recession is over? oh thats right things like the unemployment rate and inflation are just a bunch of bullshit numbers that don't mean shit.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2 ... ation.html
because right wing conservative voters are as loyal as they come
This is how it's legal
Pleeeeease spare me the dramatics ... McGuinty prorogued queens park for most of last winter, Harper did it in 2008. The liberals did it to avoid the auditors report on the sponsorship scandal. It's a tool at politicians disposal and they use it. We need reform ... all political parties suck.
Prorogation in Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prorogation_in_Canada
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Dramatic? Isn't this a thread about Canadian politics?
I also understand how prorogation works but you tell me how it's possible for you to decide when you go back to work while still collecting a paycheck?
And Harper made this an issue when he prorogued parliament to hold on to power in a minority government. Every time he does it from here on out I will be very suspicious.
Is this for the good of the party? Or for Canada?
definitely proroguing to avoid senate scandal stuff ... what is interesting is that he has said he will run in the 2015 election ... which is probably why he is doing this now ... if he wasn't running he probably wouldn't care as much ...
Like I said its a tool they all use ... And people are being dramatic about prorogation over this. Seriuosly when they decide to go work is the least of my concern. How about why to they get to decide how much they get paid? There pension? There benefits and perks?
Politicians have been given (or took to much power).
I'm a strong supporter of referendums ... It appears that people who want referendums are in the extreme minority. Going to a voting both every 4-5 years is not democracy, not even close. It's called electing your dictator and they all are dictators.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
the guy representing CSIS basically said that the agents needed to look the part ... they couldn't show up with sweat pants ... that they'd look like a joke ... i didn't know "spies" had to look a certain way ... completely bizarre ...
This is exactly why I can't stand the government and am becoming increasingly opposed to income tax, the governments complete lack of accountability with taxpayers money. As far as these expenses ... I'm pretty sure bank tellers, bankers, car salesmen, business people, furniture salesman, insurance agents, etc are expected to dress and appear a certain way and probably have to foot their own wardrobe budget ... But because we've allowed to government free reign over us they just sit back and laugh at us ... Yet once again people got easily distracted by prorogation ... As far as I'm concerned we've been living in a dictatorship with the option to change dictators every so often.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/07 ... xecutives/
Ontario Gas Plants: Cancellations May Have Cost As Much As $1.1 Billion, Auditor General Says
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/08 ... a-politics
I'm hard pressed to find a more incompetent bunch of do nothing politicians that this gang of thieves ... they stripped working people's contract, froze wages all the while saying how the coffers had run dry ... yet they somehow have no problem giving overpaid executives bonus just for completing a job they hired to do in the first place, and they seem to have no problem wasting a billion or so to save 2 seats in the GTA.
When this government took over revenues were in the 78 billion range and around 2012 revenues had increased increased to over 120 billion, thats a 40 plus billion increase in revenues, not to mention they've been borrowing an additional 15 + billion just to pay for all their pet projects.
fucking politicians ... the true leaches on society ... they leach off the productivity of others.
Ontario pays wind turbines not to produce power
http://globalnews.ca/news/832647/ontari ... uce-power/
almost forgot this disaster that the liberals created ...
Ontario’s Power Trip: Power dumping
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/0 ... r-dumping/
Kelly McParland: Here lies the wreckage of Dalton McGuinty’s self-serving gas plant decisions
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... decisions/
We should bill the liberals for the cost of the gas plant cancellation.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
At what point did Harper think Duffy would fit under the bus?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senate- ... -1.2159732
i always wonder why these hosers just don't come clean to begin with? ... i guess they cover up so much shit that doesn't get exposed that it makes it worthwhile ... won't affect his base ... but may lose some of the middle-right ...
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I was talking to someone else about this and I really wonder about this. I mean what kind of dirt does Duffy have on Harper. I mean why didn't Harper just burn him the minute the scandal broke (especially since he could make an example of him and use it as a way to push for senate reform)? Because the whole "my assistant will pay your debt but will tell people I knew nothing about it" plan sounds like the dumbest idea ever. Especially for someone with the kind of political experience Stephen Harper has.
do you get annoyed when someone doesn't actually post things that continually allow you to repeat the same thing over and over again? ... no one remotely referred to this as a current PM thing ...
what is really interesting is that Duffy still claims he did nothing wrong! ... like dude - you don't live in PEI!! ... you can't dispute that! ... and we all know nigel wright didn't write the check using his own personal funds ... pretty lame they used tax dollars to pay for it ...
Graffiti spotted in these parts:
Anne of Green Gables and Mike Duffy...both fictional residents of PEI.
It boggles the mind that Harper didn't press eject on Duffy and Wallin. It's really hard to see how this could have turned out well for Harper, and I agree that normally he's far too savvy to let this happen. Wonder if we'll know before 2015?
only explanation i got is what i wrote previously ... that they cover so much shit up - they are just used to doing it that way ..
in any case - as bad as the optics are on this ... it doesn't bother me as much as the other shit this gov't does in the face of democracy ... not sure why the opposition doesn't press them on the shit they are pulling elsewhere ...
Nope ... But as far as scandals go in terms of tax dollars being abused this seems like pittance compared to how many billions that most governments waste ...
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
yeah ... for sure ... see my other comments ... there are some real issues that should piss canadians off about this gov't ... this doesn't even make the top 10 ...
abolished ... say bye bye patronage appointments ...
too bad harper reneged on this ... cuz between ndp and cons - it would have been a slam dunk ...
There really isn't a lot the opposition can do in the face of a majority, at least in Parliament, but I certainly agree with the sentiment. Anyway I think it well past time to abolish the senate, although it will be a bit messy and too many lawyers will be billing us. The whining about that out here will be awful, I suspect.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon