- Opinion: Let’s Not Get Carried Away : The Sponsorship Scandal

Monday, May 9th 2005

Opinion Piece

Let’s Not Get Carried Away : The Sponsorship Scandal

By: Ellen Bourque

As if a $250-million dollar sponsorship scandal wasn’t enough, now Canadians face the possibility of living under a non-representative government. Based on polls and the general attitude of all Canadians towards Prime Minister Paul Martin and his Liberal party, it looks like the conservatives will win an election if they choose to hold one in the next few months. This outcome will be the foolish result of brash, former-liberal Canadian citizens who, in a rage, have unwittingly decided to change their vote to conservative, despite the long-term consequences.

Why are Canadians so angry? Because politicians involved with the former Liberal party, in the days of Jean Chrétien and the 1995 referendum in Québec, siphoned millions of tax dollars out of the government and into people’s pockets. So the anger of Canadians is well-founded, but it is presently misdirected. Are the individuals accused of criminal charges current high-ranking members of the Liberal party? Will they directly suffer if the Liberals are not re-elected? The answer is no. None of the individuals being charged with criminal offences hold influential positions in the Liberal party that is presently facing its demise.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, who was Finance Minister during the scandal, is an obvious target for angry Canadians. So far, though, he has not been identified as a criminal in the sponsorship scandal. At most, he is believed to have been aware of some of the financial horseplay at the time, but does merely knowing deserve all of the flak that Canadians are giving him? In the complex political machine, where fiscal transactions are everywhere, patronage is popular, and deals are constantly being made, it is unrealistic to expect Paul Martin to have seen and understood the entire sponsorship scandal in the clear form that we see it now and to have taken a stand. Whether or not Paul Martin knew about the scandal in some way, shape or form is but a minor accusation and does not render him incapable of being Prime Minister.

Canadians have not considered the long term effects of changing their vote to conservative. Financial scandal does not affect the social or economical policy of a political party. Although our Liberal and Conservative parties are economically similar, their social platforms are quite different. Are former pro-liberal citizens prepared to live under a conservative government for the next four years? Even an angry Canadian still feels the same way about issues like gay marriage and legalized marijuana. Are they prepared to sacrifice their beliefs and elect a government that does not represent their interests, all out of spite toward a group individuals that aren’t even current political figures?

Québec is another issue altogether. Québecers face the likelihood of another referendum, and a successful one at that. If the Conservatives are elected in Ottawa, Québecers will have little or no seats in the majority party. In addition, the sponsorship scandal has served only to fuel the distaste of Péquistes for the federal government. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the Parti Québecois will do if they win the next election, which is looking more and more likely every day. Perhaps Québec liberals should think again before voting conservative.

The role of the government is to represent the people. Is there not a serious flaw in the system when citizens elect a government whose platform they do not want? Liberals all over the country say that they will vote for the Conservative party if an election is held soon because they wish to punish those criminal individuals involved in the sponsorship scandal. They don’t seem to have noticed that these criminals are not affected by the outcome of a federal election, but rather are already being persecuted in the courthouse. The long term effects of electing a conservative government are devastating to social liberalists and federalist Québecers alike. So who exactly is being punished?

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Let’s Not Get Carried Away : The Sponsorship Scandal