John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO, DL is often misquoted in that line. But misquoted or not Lord Acton was right.
What's startling is how quickly the corruption has spread to the Conservatives. My sense is they are tired -- having gotten a majority, having rammed through their legislation -- they have nothing else to do except get into trouble.
Someone whose opinion I value, and who was a Harper Conservative commented, after hearing about the Cotler scandal, "they are such scum -- I am so disappointed in the Conservatives".
And it is a fair, if harsh, comment. Stephen Harper was supposed to be different. He was supposed to be principled and to care about taxpayers. To be a change from the sponsorship scandal tainted Liberals (and yes, that tainted us -- I'm sure the trolls who will comment on this post will endlessly talk about it).
But in very rapid order the Conservatives have become more corrupt than anyone could imagine. Leave aside the moral corruption of the crime bills, the abandonment of environmental leadership, the gutting of StatsCan and end of orderly farm marketing. Let's look at everyday misfeasance in TODAY's news:
Defence Minister Peter MacKay's fishing trip
More on Treasury Board President Tony Clement's G8/G20 spending
Attawapiskat and Ministers who didn't know until 'last Thursday' there was a problem
The Irwin Cotler affair
And this does not include the 'in and out' scandal, the new (lack of) women and bilingual appointments or the general disdain for First Nations, Metis and Inuit.
There is a long time to the next election but this government has already run out of ideas and is living on a dwindling intellectual capital.
If he is to survive the next election, Stephen Harper needs to bring forward some new goals that will focus his team -- but are there any such goals left that will be accepted by Canada?
We'll see... .
4 comments:
-Corruption is signing Kyoto Protocol knowing that targets could never be met.
- Corruption is closing the Somalia inquiry before an election.
- Incompetence is setting quotas for female MP's, and ministers etc. instead of looking at their merit.(After all the hype about the Liberals "valuing" women their has never been a female leader and now only 5-6 MP's are female in the Liberal caucus).
- Corruption is creating a gun registry, hiding the costs from MP's, and denying licences to citizens who paid for them.
- Corruption is accusing Afghanistan soldiers of torture on flimsy evidence.
- Incompetence is sending our troops to Afghanistan and refusing to extend the mission after losing power. (The Libs were divided in the one vote;Paul Martin couldn't be bothered to show up!)
- Corruption is sending incompetent or embarrassing personnel to Denmark instead of firing them.
- corruption is members ringing up debt to run for the leadership and refusing to pay it back.
-Corruption is pretending that conditions on the reserves only got untenable the day after Paul Martin was turfed. (rememeber kids sniffing gas?)
-Incompetence is believing throwing money at the problem will fix the reserves.
It isn't just about Adscam. Although since you mention it the Libs said they'd get "every penny" back. How's that working out or is it just more incompetence?
I wouldn't give the Conservatives a penny of my money either but your complaints are weakened by your affiliation with the Liberals.
"I wouldn't give the Conservatives a penny of my money either but your complaints are weakened by your affiliation with the Liberals"
I love this! Go on a partisan rant that essentially says "the other guys did it so its ok", then throw this on the end to pretend that you're just a neutral observer. Good one.
Harper et al were supposed to be different. They are not, they are corrupt as they come. Period, end story.
I didn't say it was OK. Where did I defend the g20?
I simply don't take ethics lessons from Liberals, or Conservatives for that matter.
Here's the difference between Conservative scumminess and Liberal scumminess: Conservatives will actually speak out about their own party's scumminess. To this day very few Liberals will admit the depths of their scumminess. We have libloggers saying the theft was only 10 cents per Canadian, a small price to pay for the glory of Liberal leadership. We have Liberal insiders who still refuse to admit there was anything wrong with what the party did, or have the gall to suggest the Liberal party was the victim!
What the CPC has done with Cotler is disgusting and I will be sure to say that to anyone who asks. That's the difference and that's why I still would rather be a conservative
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