Prime Minister Paul Martin is appearing on the Saskatoon based John Gormley show tomorrow morning. He will be live in studio with the talk radio host and former Conservative MP for an hour – taking calls from listeners.
Let that sink in for a moment, and you may get an inkling of how much trouble this PM thinks he’s in.
When Auditor General Sheila Fraser released her scathing report on the mishandling of funds in the Sponsorship Program scandal, it set into motion a political runaway train.
John Chretien had a reason for vacating the office of Prime Minister a few months early.
According to Julie Hebert, media relations manager in the AG’s office, deputy ministers of all of the departments mentioned in Sheila Fraser’s blistering report, were handed draft copies of the report in October, to give them an opportunity to reply, which is standard procedure.
Chretien clearly read the report and as such, read the writing on the wall.
So, instead of taking the heat from the fallout of the report and breaking for Christmas in December, and instead of coming back in the New Year to celebrate his 70th birthday in the House of Commons on Jan. 11 as he long planned, Chretien pulled a fast one on Parliament, his party and most of all, his enemy, Paul Martin.
After all, what’s one more broken promise in a career filled with them?
Martin, who was visibly pleased by Chretien’s early departure, was either too blinded by ambition or too stupid to recognize Chretien’s last act as PM was to stick a long knife in his back.
Originally uncovered two years ago, the jist of the scheme involved the illegal transfer of federal funds through a handful of advertising agencies in Quebec owned by Liberal party supporters. These agencies then moved the money on to various agencies and Crown Corporations, after taking hefty commissions. The odds on speculation is that those funds found their way back to Liberal party coffers. $100 million of the $250 million spent on the program (intended for feel-good-about-Canada PR events prior to the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum) was diverted in this manner.
Cited in the illegal transfers are several Crown Corporations headed by Chretien appointees, including Canada Post, Via Rail and the RCMP. Especially embarrassing for the Mounties, they have had to call in the Quebec Provincial Police to conduct the investigation. Irregularities cited by the Auditor General include lack of any indication as to how the program was initiated, or by whom.
And the shoes keep dropping. Although the scandal surfaced two years ago, news that one of the firms involved has recieved further government contracts surfaced yesterday. In December the Martin government awarded $500,000 in contracts to a Groupe Everest subsidiary.
Today Sheila Fraser will be naming names at the Commons public accounts committee.
And what has private citizen Chretien have to say for himself?
“We should be skiing today, it would be better,” he told reporters outside his Ottawa law office.
“I don’t think anymore,” he said. “I was the government, I replied to all your questions � a lot of them. Now if you have questions ask the government.
Update: More meaty details from Andrew Coyne