I have been catching up on some reading and was at Dantallion's site and read this post. The whole Federal Election discussion got me to thinking about all the finger pointing and general amnesia people have when it comes to scandals in this country. I always find it rather amusing when MPs or the press, or society continuously bring up the Liberal scandals. Yes, some members of the Liberal party faltered, but if the slaggers really want to play that game, we can dredge up a whole lot of scandals in the Conservative party from years ago:
1873 corruption scandal brought down the Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald and cost Canada's first prime minister the 1874 election. He was accused of accepting $350, 000 in donations from Sir Hugh Allan, in return for giving him the contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).
1958-61: The Gerda Munsinger scandal, where the Canadian public learned that some guilty Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers had been consorting with an East German playgirl who may have been a KGB spy.
1985: TunaGate, where Fisheries minister John Fraser had overturned an order from his own inspectors and ordered a million cans of StarKist tuna released for sale to the public. The inspectors had said the tuna, packed at the StarKist plant in St. Andrews, N.B., was so badly spoiled that it wasn't even fit to be turned into catfood. The plant's owners had lobbied Fraser to release the cans for sale, saying they might shut the plant if the tuna couldn't be sold. Needless, to say, that Starkist plant was shutdown. Fraser went on to become the House Speaker.
1995: 14 Conservative members of the Legislature and 2 caucus workers were convicted of fraud and breach of trust for illegally diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from government allowances in a phoney expense-claim scam.
1995: Airbus scandal involving Mulroney.
Let's also not forget, that Mulroney lost an average of one cabinet minister to allegations of wrongdoing during each year of his 1984-1993 reign.
It truly is amazing how soon we forget, isn't it? Next year, everything will be forgotten again and a whole new slurry of scandals will plague either one of the parties, and each will sit upon their Porcelain throne and point fingers, noses in the air, pretending as though their shit didn't stink. Everyone shits, and everyone has to wipe their ass. I just don't need to see it on my paper everyday.
10 comments:
I so agree. Scandal to scandal and in the grand scheme of things, I don't even think the current one is that big a deal.
how true! i think that it doesn't matter which country you look at, there will always be some form of corruption and scandal...so i see digging up liberal's scandals as a cheap shot and a pointless thing to do...thanks for sharing your findings!
Sadly, that is true. Since power does really corrupt, we shouldn't be surprised, and yet we are every time. I think a good first step would be a little law that said, "If you hold public office, lying is punishable by 5 years in prison."
scandal. its the name of the game in politics. its all about catching "the other guys" fucking up. but you know. scandal doesn't hold the weight that it once did. at least not heer in the US.we as a society are becoming TOO FORGIVING if you can believe that. everyone gets away with murder now and we just sit back and ignore it. it's horrifying.
Hey, at least you guys don't have Bush!;)
How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving.
And Raven, we have Dubya's mini-me coming into power here. He's just as awful, but without the nuclear might.
Politics is the one arena you'd think people wouldn't tolerate scandal or a lack of ethics, yet its so common place now. These people are shaping the world to be for our children, nieces, and nephews; and we pick them based on the lesser evil. Between politics, and church scandals, they're in trouble. Its just sad.
Hahahaha go Epi. Wow, that brings back some memories. I think Politics and Scandal are just two things with grey areas around them which blur well together. Fortunately, once in a while we do get a truly inspirational leader. I was listening to a good program on CBC a while ago about that, about whether we have any leadership that is truly remarkable and inspirational these days.
Snooze - agreed. It's a game, and it's all about directing the focus off of their own "fuck Ups" and making the other seem worse...where is the accountability? Where is the real Leader?
Sister - You're not the 1st to feel that way. So many have voiced similar opinions.
Spoony - It is a cheapshot, but it works. What I would rather see are Ads and commercials where the candidate talks about THEIR goals and accomplishments with honesty and integrity, rather than the slanderous ads we see now.
tornwordo - Hmmm, I kinda like that one!
Ms Bees Knees - Murder darling...I thought you would be relishing in that what with your "bodycount". LOL
Raven - You do have a very good point there.
Dickey - That's a good one...worth repeating. LOL
Greg - It makes you question what the future holds doesn't it? So sad.
Daelyn - How true. I agree. Where is the inspirational leader? There certainly is nothing remarkable about any of the current leaders.
Interesting discussion, Epi. Thanks for bringing it up.
I don't know that scandals are becoming more frequent than they used to be ... maybe it's just that we're finding more things scandalous. Stuff that would have been tolerated (with no more than a "nod, nod, wink, wink, say no more") only thirty or forty years ago - giving a major contract to a friend, accepting a "harmless gift" from a lobbyist, etc. - now causes outrage. A hundred years ago, parties used to blatantly threaten or bribe people to get their vote without any real price to pay.
Whenever there's power up for grabs, there will almost certainly be corruption. It doesn't excuse it, or those who think it's ok because "that's just the way things work." The thing that gives me hope is that we DON'T excuse it -- not really. We still get mad when politicians or civil servants break their (implicit) oath to serve the public to the best of their ability. It's still news. And, as we're finding out, bad behaviour can still bring down a government.
On the whole, I think it's a good thing that we are bombarded by scandals. I don't enjoy reading about them any more than anyone else -- and I certainly don't think any one party should be fitted with wings and a halo! -- but, when it gets right down to it, you can't fix what you don't know about.
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