That’s not me asking, it’s Andrew Coyne, columnist at the National Post. It’s a good read, and for once it’s available to all readers, not just subscribers, so take advantage and give it a read! (For my part, I don’t simply ask the question, I make it a statement. Just don’t trust them.)
Here’s a snippet:
[…] So in some ways, the Auditor-General’s latest report is the most damning of all. There is no way to deny or minimize the stark reality of what it contains: Liberal cabinet ministers colluded in a scheme of deception—fraud is another word—to hide the mounting costs of the gun registry. They did so, what is more, not to avoid mere embarrassment or criticism, but to defy the will of Parliament. Having been told they could not spend more than a certain figure, they did, and cooked the books to conceal what they had done.
Warned, in early 2004, that the costs of the program that year would exceed the amount authorized by Parliament to the tune of nearly $22-million, government officials conspired to have the excess spending counted against future years’ budgets—future, as in after the impending election—rather than seek Parliament’s approval for the extra funds, and have to disclose the overrun. When government accountants protested this was against the rules, ministers had their legal staff look for loopholes to justify it—unsuccessfully, it appears. The Auditor-General concludes their actions were not only in violation of generally accepted accounting principles, but of the Financial Administration Act.
This was not a mere failure of oversight. These were not rogue bureaucrats, or junior party officials. These were decisions taken at the top levels of government, by ministers and their advisers. And while responsibility for the sponsorship scandal could arguably be laid at the feet of Jean Chretien, the Auditor-General says the phony accounting happened on both Mr. Chretien’s and Paul Martin’s watches.
This has nothing to do with the gun registry, its merits or demerits. This is about responsible government. This is about whether we can truly be called a democracy—whether those we entrust with executive power are answerable to the Parliament we elect.
[…]
There are countless other good opinions being expressed today—nearly all of them condemning the Liberals. There are exceptions of course. The hideous leftist Toronto Star doesn’t even pretend to be a serious newspaper. The don’t even bother to opine about the Fraser report in its Editorial section today. Instead they opine about “Harper’s petulance”—the story of Gwyn Morgan’s rejection by the actual petulant liberal left that the Toronto Star supports, and open with a description of Gwyn Morgan as “one of the most successful oilmen in Calgary” in a telling example of their own petulance and nation-splitting anti-Canadianism.
Also read Don Martin’s column today—also free to readers for once—in today’s National Post, called For the gun registry, a good time to die
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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