Yet another CPC/Harper scandal, this time using illegally gained money to fight the last election with and then hiding it despite claiming otherwise
Back in July I noticed a story that the media had yet to discover thanks to Somena Media regarding the CPC refusing to declare 1.7 million dollars of donations. That it appeared the CPC chose to ignore the legal requirements and declare that unless a convention makes a profit no moneys donated/paid to it by attendees was a political contribution. Well the Chief Election Officer appeared to disagree then and wanted to examine all the CPC books regarding this matter. The CPC claimed it had already turned over these books and all pertinent documentation. Well it appears yet again what the CPC says they are doing and what they actually have done are disconnected from each other, in this case we have the CEO declaring that the requested information has still to be turned over to him and that the claims of following the law and having done nothing wrong in this matter by the CPC has zero basis in law and truth. Cerberus has a good post up on this and Meaghan Walker Williams also has some good material in researching it during the summer over here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Now, why is this a big deal one might wonder? Simple, the CPC had 1.7 million dollars of illegal funds with which they fought the last election with, thereby tainting the electoral process. After all when one party has more money than the other parties generated by illegal/improper means and then after the fact tries to pretend it did nothing wrong it brings into question the integrity and trustworthiness of that party, it's leader and their real commitment to democracy and the rule of law. I do not know where this is going to end up but so far the CPC actions here make it look like they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar and know it, and are now trying to do all they can to make this scandal disappear. Ironically it was the Treasury Board Baird who first broke this story in a Senate hearing on the matter of the Accountability Act a few months ago that first got this ball rolling. The responses I have seen so far from the Conservative side of the spectrum seems to be this is a Liberal scandal because they want taxpayers to pay for their convention while the CPC does not, a nice sound-bite that has absolutely nothing to do with the apparent illegal actions of the CPC in this matter and their inability to understand how to follow the same laws all the other parties managed to in this matter. This approach feels much the same as the one used to cover up the Grewal scandal/fraud by the CPC last year, change the subject and claim that the only wrongdoing is from the evil Liberals instead of the noble Conservatives despite clear evidence that the CPC has done something wrong and then tries to cover up said wrongdoing.
Yet people wonder why I consider this government to be so dangerous to the nation and our way of life. If it will not follow the rule of law even/especially regarding how we wage elections in this country why should anyone trust them to follow it anywhere else they feel they can get away with it? Why should anyone trust a party/leader like that with the powers of government whatever their party/ideology? The CPC cannot keep claiming they are the honest and ethical party when they keep trying to hide such serious matters of concern as raising, hiding, and using illegally obtained financing to fight an election with, in this case an election they won a minority government with. This has all the appearances of yet another classic example of the Harper/CPC contempt for the rule of law when it interferes with their ideology/beliefs on something and their habit of pretending they did nothing wrong and then finding some way to blame the Liberals and paint them as the bad guys. This approach works better though when the Liberals are the government, but the CPC has been the government for the last nine months now and they have got to recognize that they are entirely accountable for their own actions, inactions, and illegal acts regardless of the Liberals own actions, especially when they have no bearing on the issue, which in this case they most certainly do not.
Now, why is this a big deal one might wonder? Simple, the CPC had 1.7 million dollars of illegal funds with which they fought the last election with, thereby tainting the electoral process. After all when one party has more money than the other parties generated by illegal/improper means and then after the fact tries to pretend it did nothing wrong it brings into question the integrity and trustworthiness of that party, it's leader and their real commitment to democracy and the rule of law. I do not know where this is going to end up but so far the CPC actions here make it look like they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar and know it, and are now trying to do all they can to make this scandal disappear. Ironically it was the Treasury Board Baird who first broke this story in a Senate hearing on the matter of the Accountability Act a few months ago that first got this ball rolling. The responses I have seen so far from the Conservative side of the spectrum seems to be this is a Liberal scandal because they want taxpayers to pay for their convention while the CPC does not, a nice sound-bite that has absolutely nothing to do with the apparent illegal actions of the CPC in this matter and their inability to understand how to follow the same laws all the other parties managed to in this matter. This approach feels much the same as the one used to cover up the Grewal scandal/fraud by the CPC last year, change the subject and claim that the only wrongdoing is from the evil Liberals instead of the noble Conservatives despite clear evidence that the CPC has done something wrong and then tries to cover up said wrongdoing.
Yet people wonder why I consider this government to be so dangerous to the nation and our way of life. If it will not follow the rule of law even/especially regarding how we wage elections in this country why should anyone trust them to follow it anywhere else they feel they can get away with it? Why should anyone trust a party/leader like that with the powers of government whatever their party/ideology? The CPC cannot keep claiming they are the honest and ethical party when they keep trying to hide such serious matters of concern as raising, hiding, and using illegally obtained financing to fight an election with, in this case an election they won a minority government with. This has all the appearances of yet another classic example of the Harper/CPC contempt for the rule of law when it interferes with their ideology/beliefs on something and their habit of pretending they did nothing wrong and then finding some way to blame the Liberals and paint them as the bad guys. This approach works better though when the Liberals are the government, but the CPC has been the government for the last nine months now and they have got to recognize that they are entirely accountable for their own actions, inactions, and illegal acts regardless of the Liberals own actions, especially when they have no bearing on the issue, which in this case they most certainly do not.
posted by Scotian | 4:39 PM
6 Comments:
The entire Conservative platform centered around a return to ethical government, with the Liberals as easy villian. The constant claim of moral high ground makes every revelation that much more hypocritical. The tension between the rhetoric and the actual plagues conservatives because they deny their human nature. Using the American right as an example, you see all the heavyweights fail to meet their own standards for the rest of the world. Limbaugh, Bennett, Delay all made a career belittling "liberals", which makes their own problems all the more striking. If you want a good laugh go back and look at the Tory bluebook from the last election. It's a long fall from such a lofty pedestal.
As an aside, nice to see you posting again Scotian :)
Good post. And I finally added you to my blogroll -- sorry it took me so long.
Steve V:
Well before the last election, a bit before the Grewal scandal first broke I was commenting online that the CPC and Harper were running a morality campaign and that those carry significant potential benefits with a old government haunted by scandals but also carries a potential price to it. That price being they set standards they may not be able to meet if they take power which leaves them vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy, expediency and deceit in the pursuit of power, a willingness to embrace an anything goes mentality, etc. This is useful for opposition parties, but to be really effective ordinary Canadians also must start picking up on it, which is why I focus on it as much as I can/do. Indeed, I believe I mentioned that in an earlier post some months back to explain why I was focusing on this aspect regarding the CPC/Harper.
Morality campaigns are also dangerous tools to the society themselves. They are because they introduce absolutes mixed in with extremely subjective impressions of those absolutes in such a way that they narrow perceptual commonality between people. I'm not sure if I put that well, it's like introducing the idea of "good" and "evil" and doing a "wink-wink" on each definition by putting in it such a way that it should be "obvious" what it's really about thereby letting the listener define it by their personal notions of such, usually by adding their own qualifiers with the original focus under examination. Man, this is hard explaining a dynamic contrast between two strongly opposed concepts, but you see much of my perceptual framework is set up around seeing things in complex dynamic functions at all times. Since nothing is truly isolated everything is constantly affecting each other in minuscule amounts and over time significantly impact on things. This is true especially I have found in human interactions and politics is that raised to a high art form.
The relative that trained me in politics in my youth told me that this allowed me a very valuable tool into understanding politics, it was why she was willing to mentor me as much as she did, because ultimately it is how the politician interacts and relates with his/her constituency that defines success/failure. This is true in elections campaigns AND in the day to day operations of being an elected representative and the slightest element of that can if improperly handled blow up into a major source of difficulty. When you combine this with being able to know how to research someone/something and to be smart about finding first sources and whole contexts wherever possible you would be amazed at how simple yet extraordinarily complex a healthy political system/dynamic works and how easy it is to understand what the various actors are trying to do and how it will ripple outwards.
This is one of the things I do not believe is understood by the Straussians, they see it in a far more mechanistic manner with far more solid defined parameters than the highly fluid constant interactions I am talking about. They also in our case do not appear to have a good sense on the underlying fundamental dynamics of this country in terms of the core social values most of us prefer. Put those two together and you have real problems, especially with the Straussian belief in elites only governing and the acceptance of the noble lie in the service of gaining/holding power. When you add to that the agenda of decentralization, a daddy knows best approach to governing (as in secrecy, trust us, strong forceful "ideals" like with Afghanistan and the three strikes proposal and take it/leave it governing a la softwood lumber among others) and what appears to be an assimilationist approach to the "approved" Canadian identity instead of the multicultural community of communities approach Canada had favoured now for generations and you have a potential for the shredding of the Canada that has been built in the past 130 years. After all they hate Liberals and their ideas and beliefs yet Liberals by far created this country given how much they governed from birth onwards.
This scares the hell out of me, and given the obvious fascination of American political concepts (since Strauss was primarily an American political thinker this is more than fair despite the squealing of CPCers that call it simple anti-Americanism to deflect from it's truth) like three strikes, God openly in government, social culture war politics, and an elected Senate despite the horrors Constitutional discussion create and this one needing unanimity to accomplish the morality campaign approach was a natural fit. Since they represent the threat I believe them to be it is my civic duty in my view to draw whatever attention I can to their true nature and get them removed from federal power first and hopefully so discredited in the CPC itself so that they loose power and a more traditional Canadian rooted Conservatism comes to control this party.
I am opposed to this specific CPC party with the current CPC leadership and front line, not conservatism generally. Indeed I have some conservative traits in my political nature as well as personal, which is one of the reasons this imported American style conservatism frightens me. Not because it gives a Conservative party a chance at power, but because it is a style of politics that did not evolve in our system but in one radically different in design than ours. We are not a democratic Republic, we are a Constitutional Parliamentary democracy, a very different breed of cat altogether. What may work in one system can be impotent or it's opposite, destructive in effect and unfortunately most of the tools Harper favours are the latter even in their original system let alone ours.
The fascination with ethics and morality is also a core element of that, which given what this party and leader has done from the Grewal fraud to the media controls to the 48 hrs window to agree to and have a very limited debate on the Afghanistan mission getting a 2 year extension with one year guaranteed regardless of Parliament's decision to the latest using the military as props and involving the PM himself in a partisan rally on Parliament Hill today is such a hypocrisy it is a wonder the planet does not implode from it. So I peck away as best I can, and hopefully by the time of the next election I will have generated enough information to be able to weave together some really detailed examinations of their words versus their deeds and achieve my goal, the removal of power of the American Conservative element from having more than fringe influence in the CPC. Then they will become a party I will not feel the need to have to oppose at every turn.
It is they after all that declared war on all those that did not share their views, we "lefties", "commies", "cut and run cowards", corrupt liars", you know, "unpatriotic", etc. The worst thing about the GOP tactics they are importing is that they are premised on total war, that your domestic opposition are not fellow citizens with a different perspective on how things should work but an evil enemy that if allowed power will destroy the good within the country and disgrace its heritage and all those that sacrificed making it great. What it has done in a nation that was already a bi polar federal structure is bad enough, in our multipolar federal structure it will be like acid in fabric with much the same results over time. That is my worst fear and why I am doing what I am doing in opposing the CPC despite not being a partisan of any other party.
BTW Steve, thanks for the compliment in my return. I know I haven't blogged much, but sometimes one needs to take time and think about things for a while and to let other things take precedence. I like to think that when I do post things they are serious, substantial, and thought provoking, which alas is not something I can do long term on a daily basis, if only because of my health. Still, I do what I can and that people like yourself think as well of my work as you do does make the effort I put in more than feel worthwhile and I thank you for that.
Scotian, good to see you are back posting. Hope all is well on the family front!
Keep it up. I don't see this type of analysis in the media, mores the pity. It's disturbing, and unfortunately is reminiscent of what has happened in our neighbour to the south.
Scotian:
I am adding you to my blogroll. Is that okay with you?
I am a tory, not a US-style "conservative."
Aeneas theYonger:
Nope, not at all, I know you are not the kind of Conservative I see as a direct threat to this country's stability and future. If you think any of my work is worthy of your linking to it, I certainly have no problems with it. As I have said before I like honest discussion, and you certainly provide that at Red Tory's in my experience. Just recall I can be an infrequent poster, I tend to spend more time reading other blogs and news material and commenting on it in discussions there where the info is than I am used to bringing them here to Saundrie. Hopefully I can get back into a more regular posting pattern than I have had the last few months.
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