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Feb. 22, 2004. 01:00 AM
Martin the white knight should get off high horse
LINDA MCQUAIG
After many months in political exile, Martin the Challenger returned to rescue the Canadian people from something called the "democratic deficit."
Or so the story went.
In many ways, "the democratic deficit" seemed like the perfect rationale for Paul Martin's challenge to the Liberal throne. After all, Martin had slayed the budget deficit. Now he was back to slay another deficit that sounded just as threatening — the deficit in our democratic ways.
But even a perfect slogan has to have a little substance to it. And therein lay a problem. Sure, there was plenty wrong with the way our democracy functioned — starting with the far too cozy relationship between the long-governing Liberals and the well-heeled lobbyists, consultants and other assorted special interests anxious to both influence government policy and receive chunks of government largesse.
But that wasn't the sort of democratic deficit Martin was interested in fixing.
On the contrary, Martin himself had long had extremely close ties to lobbyists, particularly the crowd in Ottawa's powerful Earnscliffe Strategy Corp. And Martin had just raised close to $11 million for his leadership bid from business interests who clearly had high expectations of influencing his government.
So, instead, Martin's assault on the "democratic deficit" came to focus on enhancing the parliamentary rights of MPs to do things like introduce private member's bills and operate more independently on committees.
All well and good. But for this, he had spent years striving to push Jean Chrétien off the Liberal throne and liberate the Canadian people?
Martin's decision to avoid dealing with the more substantive aspects of the democratic deficit left him free to operate as he had in the past. But it also left him ill-positioned to get on his high horse when the Auditor-General produced a scathing report detailing examples of our democratic deficit in action; how the Liberal government allowed public money earmarked for national-unity promotion to fall into the hands of advertising agencies with close Liberal ties.
Still, Martin wasted no time expressing indignation to anyone who would listen. When it came to Martin's outrage, there would be no deficit.
There's been much speculation over exactly how much he knew about these scandals, which took place while he was finance minister. A full answer will have to await the public inquiry.
He clearly had some inkling.
After all, the Auditor-General had released an earlier report in May 2002 that was almost as scathing, pointing to "an appalling lack of documentation" in government contracts to Liberal-friendly firms and charging that senior public servants "broke just about every rule in the book."
Even if Martin hadn't been paying much attention back then, he had plenty of time to mull over these damning findings as he waited in exile, pondering exactly what was wrong with the democracy he so desperately wanted to fix.
But as he honed the catchy phrase "democratic deficit," he showed little interest in reforming the system that had led to the kinds of problems identified by the Auditor-General.
When he became prime minister, Martin quickly scrapped the long-controversial sponsorship program identified by Sheila Fraser. But he left in place many other advertising and communications programs involving firms with Liberal ties.
He also seemed unconcerned by his own cozy relationship with lobbyists and business interests, and the danger that such coziness creates a political culture that is undemocratic at best, and rife with opportunities for corruption at worst.
Certainly, eyebrows have been raised over Martin's long-standing closeness to Earnscliffe, which has received millions of dollars in government contracts over the past decade, and is sometimes described as a sort of "shadow PMO."
"Earnscliffe had people working for Martin when he was finance minister, lobbying Martin at the same time, working for Martin's leadership campaign and transition team, and still now working for and lobbying Martin as Prime Minister," notes Duff Conacher of the independent watchdog group Democracy Watch.
"If Martin doesn't make some key changes, everyone should expect that Earnscliffe will be the next spending scandal," says Conacher.
It's never clear exactly where Martin's staff ends and Earnscliffe's begins. Keeping the players and their roles straight is at least as complicated as following a French farce where everybody ends up in a merry mix-up in bed together.
Martin's outrage over the current scandals would seem more plausible if he were a little less enmeshed in this intertwined world of politics and lobbying.
But in the merry mix-up of lobby firms and Ottawa politicians, Martin is the first one on with his nightie.
Linda McQuaig is a Toronto-based author and political commentator. Her column appears Sundays.
Additional articles by Linda McQuaig
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Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of any material from www.thestar.com is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. For information please contact us using our webmaster form. www.thestar.com online since 1996.
Feb. 22, 2004. 01:00 AM
Martin the white knight should get off high horse
LINDA MCQUAIG
After many months in political exile, Martin the Challenger returned to rescue the Canadian people from something called the "democratic deficit."
Or so the story went.
In many ways, "the democratic deficit" seemed like the perfect rationale for Paul Martin's challenge to the Liberal throne. After all, Martin had slayed the budget deficit. Now he was back to slay another deficit that sounded just as threatening — the deficit in our democratic ways.
But even a perfect slogan has to have a little substance to it. And therein lay a problem. Sure, there was plenty wrong with the way our democracy functioned — starting with the far too cozy relationship between the long-governing Liberals and the well-heeled lobbyists, consultants and other assorted special interests anxious to both influence government policy and receive chunks of government largesse.
But that wasn't the sort of democratic deficit Martin was interested in fixing.
On the contrary, Martin himself had long had extremely close ties to lobbyists, particularly the crowd in Ottawa's powerful Earnscliffe Strategy Corp. And Martin had just raised close to $11 million for his leadership bid from business interests who clearly had high expectations of influencing his government.
So, instead, Martin's assault on the "democratic deficit" came to focus on enhancing the parliamentary rights of MPs to do things like introduce private member's bills and operate more independently on committees.
All well and good. But for this, he had spent years striving to push Jean Chrétien off the Liberal throne and liberate the Canadian people?
Martin's decision to avoid dealing with the more substantive aspects of the democratic deficit left him free to operate as he had in the past. But it also left him ill-positioned to get on his high horse when the Auditor-General produced a scathing report detailing examples of our democratic deficit in action; how the Liberal government allowed public money earmarked for national-unity promotion to fall into the hands of advertising agencies with close Liberal ties.
Still, Martin wasted no time expressing indignation to anyone who would listen. When it came to Martin's outrage, there would be no deficit.
There's been much speculation over exactly how much he knew about these scandals, which took place while he was finance minister. A full answer will have to await the public inquiry.
He clearly had some inkling.
After all, the Auditor-General had released an earlier report in May 2002 that was almost as scathing, pointing to "an appalling lack of documentation" in government contracts to Liberal-friendly firms and charging that senior public servants "broke just about every rule in the book."
Even if Martin hadn't been paying much attention back then, he had plenty of time to mull over these damning findings as he waited in exile, pondering exactly what was wrong with the democracy he so desperately wanted to fix.
But as he honed the catchy phrase "democratic deficit," he showed little interest in reforming the system that had led to the kinds of problems identified by the Auditor-General.
When he became prime minister, Martin quickly scrapped the long-controversial sponsorship program identified by Sheila Fraser. But he left in place many other advertising and communications programs involving firms with Liberal ties.
He also seemed unconcerned by his own cozy relationship with lobbyists and business interests, and the danger that such coziness creates a political culture that is undemocratic at best, and rife with opportunities for corruption at worst.
Certainly, eyebrows have been raised over Martin's long-standing closeness to Earnscliffe, which has received millions of dollars in government contracts over the past decade, and is sometimes described as a sort of "shadow PMO."
"Earnscliffe had people working for Martin when he was finance minister, lobbying Martin at the same time, working for Martin's leadership campaign and transition team, and still now working for and lobbying Martin as Prime Minister," notes Duff Conacher of the independent watchdog group Democracy Watch.
"If Martin doesn't make some key changes, everyone should expect that Earnscliffe will be the next spending scandal," says Conacher.
It's never clear exactly where Martin's staff ends and Earnscliffe's begins. Keeping the players and their roles straight is at least as complicated as following a French farce where everybody ends up in a merry mix-up in bed together.
Martin's outrage over the current scandals would seem more plausible if he were a little less enmeshed in this intertwined world of politics and lobbying.
But in the merry mix-up of lobby firms and Ottawa politicians, Martin is the first one on with his nightie.
Linda McQuaig is a Toronto-based author and political commentator. Her column appears Sundays.
Additional articles by Linda McQuaig
› Get 50% off home delivery of the Toronto Star.
FAQs| Site Map| Privacy Policy| Webmaster| Subscribe| My Subscription
Home| GTA| Business| Waymoresports| A&E| Life
Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of any material from www.thestar.com is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. For information please contact us using our webmaster form. www.thestar.com online since 1996.