Conservative Canadian crisis

The man behind alleged conspiracy has a tough year ahead of him.

Ryan Mallough

Silhouette Staff

Listen to the sound of my voice. You are falling into a deep state of relaxation.

Let me take you back to the year 2004. The Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. George Bush started his second presidential term after beating John Kerry, and the Chrétien government had recently come to the end amidst a national scandal after ten years of power.

People of every political stripe were outraged over the allegations of the “sponsorship scandal.” The idea that the federal government could be a participant in such a corrupt practice – never mind its original intent of maintaining national unity – was more than the people could handle. Canada’s Auditor General found that $100 million was paid to communications agencies that produced little or no benefit to Canadians. The government had been accused of mismanaging enormous sums of public money, and the public wanted blood.

No federal Liberal or party executive was charged of any crime, but in the court of public opinion their sentence was absolute. The Liberal Party would lose their majority, then their government. They have lost a significant number of seats in every election since.

Last week, the Conservative Party of Canada pled guilty to exceeding election limits and filing election records that did not include all of their expenses. In what came to be known as the “in and out” scandal, the Conservatives transferred $1.3 million dollars to individual ridings that had not reached their spending limits. The ridings then returned the money to the national party, which had already met its $18.3 million dollar limit. It spent the money on further advertising, identical to the national ads. The ridings then asked for the 60 per cent reimbursement from Elections Canada.

For what amounts to confessing to some level of election fraud, the Party will pay fines of $52,000 total, and in exchange will see charges against Senators Doug Finley and Irving Gerstein, and senior party members Michael Donison and Suan Kehoe dropped. This is probably the first and last that many people will hear of it.

It is not the first Conservative scandal.

The Conservative government has pledged an unknown amount of money – during an economic recession – for fighter jets. It has recently been revealed that the jets will not be equipped with the radio technology necessary to communicate in the Arctic airspace they were purchased to defend.

Former top adviser to the Prime Minister Bruce Carson, who was hired to the PMO despite fraud convictions, was accused of influence peddling in promising government contracts to an Ottawa-based water purification company. However, Carson’s actions pale in comparison to the Conservative Party’s alleged offer to dying Independent MP Chuck Cadman. Cadman’s daughter claims that the Conservatives offered Cadman a $1 million dollar insurance policy, among other enticements, in exchange for rejoining the them before a key budget vote.

In perhaps the most egregious offense of all, the Conservative Party outright refused to provide the House with documents surrounding the handling of detainees in Afghanistan. The move brought the opposition to find the government in contempt, the first such occurrence in the history of Canada. The Conservatives dismissed the vote as nothing more than a political manoeuvre.

The people barely noticed.

In five years, the Conservative Party has been involved in scandals worthy of a political soap opera. Their offenses have ranged from irresponsible to a flat out affront and dismissal of Canadian democracy.

They have made no apologies. They have simply told us to move along, that there is nothing to see here, and that it does not matter anyway. The public smiles, nods and goes back to their coffee.

There has been no outrage. No cry for political blood. No cry at all. Instead, the Conservatives have been rewarded for their actions with an increased vote share in every election, leading to majority government.

The public has simply stopped caring.

So go ahead, continue to ignore the man behind the curtain. These are not the scandals you are looking for.

When I count down from five you will wake up. You will continue to feel apathetic. You will remember nothing.

Five...four...three...two...one...