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CanPol: Gomery and a Looming Federal Election

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  • Manning-Harris report backs private health care
    Health care bomb lobbed as possible federal election campaign looms

    OTTAWA - Preston Manning and Mike Harris tossed an electoral bomb into the lap of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper today, issuing a joint report calling on Ottawa to get out of medicare and let the provinces experiment with private health services.

    Manning, the Reform party founder, and Harris, the former Ontario Tory premier, insisted their report, commissioned by the right-wing Fraser Institute, was non-partisan.

    But it quickly became fodder for a potential federal election.

    Prime Minister Paul Martin, seeking a respite from his woes over the sponsorship scandal, vowed to fight "tooth and nail" to defend medicare.

    The Conservative agenda is no longer hidden, Martin told the Commons.

    "It is no federal role in health care, it is no Canada Health Act, it is no one saying `no' to the privatization of health care."

    Martin sought to portray Manning and Harris as little more than mouthpieces for Harper - a claim adamantly denied by the Conservative leader.

    "It's not my position," Harper said of the report as he emerged from the House.

    "It's not the position of the Conservative party. It's the position of an independent think tank."

    Harper also accused Martin of trying to divert attention from the continuing sponsorship furor and branded the effort "a pretty pathetic performance."

    Earlier, speaking outside a party caucus meeting, Harper had been ambiguous in his initial response to the Manning-Harris report.

    He noted that most provinces are already experimenting with private delivery of some health services, but are doing so within the overall context of a publicly funded system.

    "That's an experiment that I said we support," said Harper.

    "Mr. Martin has said he doesn't support it, but Mr. Martin not only signed an accord with the provinces that allows it, unlike myself he goes to a private health care clinic."

    That was a reference to a Montreal clinic where Martin's personal physician practises. But Amy Butcher, a spokeswoman for the prime minister, described it as an "open clinic" that anyone can attend.

    "When he visits his doctor, the prime minister - like all Canadians - uses his (public) health card," said Butcher.

    Harper has been trying to move toward the political centre on health care and other social issues, hoping to deprive the Liberals of a weapon they used against him in the last election campaign.

    The federal Conservatives, at their recent convention, adopted a policy that supports the public health system but would allow the provinces some room to manoeuvre on how they deliver services.

    Manning and Harris, by contrast, recommend what they call ``critical surgery" for medicare.

    They say Ottawa should cease funding the system and transfer more tax powers to the provinces so they can take up the slack.

    They also say the Canada Health Act should be scrapped or drastically reformed to eliminate all barriers to private services.

    "We could all achieve greater things if Ottawa would learn to trust us and stay out of our way," said Harris.

    "Canadians can look after their own health and the health of their families if they're given the right and the tools to do so."

    Both men insisted they weren't looking specifically to Harper to champion the proposals.

    "We just hope that all the parties might find something attractive in this presentation of a third option," said Manning.

    "You can have universal coverage and a two-track system. There's 20 or 25 countries that do it, and they get better results per dollar spent than we do."

    But Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh saw the proposals as a recipe to "demolish and dismantle" the Canada Health Act, the federal law that lets Ottawa enforce national health-care standards.

    "They want to have a checkerboard, privatized health care in Canada across this country," said Dosanjh. "This must not be allowed."

    The health-care proposals were not the only contentious recommendations in the report co-authored by Harris and Manning after three years of study.

    They also urged the transfer of $300 billion from the public sector to the private sector over six years, through tax cuts and strict limits on government spending.

    They proposed as well a new economic deal with the United States that would go far beyond NAFTA to include a customs union.

    On that point they weren't too different from John Manley, the former Liberal deputy prime minister, who has urged a similar course.


    So...
    Blog | Civ2 Scenario League | leo.petr at gmail.com

    Comment


    • Oh yes, the 'scary' Conservatives with their 'hidden agendas'.

      Must be an election coming - the Liberals have got their talking points ready and the media seems eager to spread the word.

      After a dozen years you would think they would have a proud record to run on. Then again why bother? The public scares easy.
      "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
      "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

      Comment


      • HAHAHAH! I'd love to see the look on Harper's bland face when he heard about this... (the above)

        Great sense of timing guys!! Say hello to your next Liberal Government.
        "Wait a minute..this isn''t FAUX dive, it's just a DIVE!"
        "...Mangy dog staggering about, looking vainly for a place to die."
        "sauna stories? There are no 'sauna stories'.. I mean.. sauna is sauna. You do by the laws of sauna." -P.

        Comment


        • Originally posted by Seeker
          HAHAHAH! I'd love to see the look on Harper's bland face when he heard about this... (the above)
          Do we assume the Liberal Party's hidden agenda consists of whatever former Liberals happen to be saying?

          Great sense of timing guys!! Say hello to your next Liberal Government.
          Says more about the intelligence of the average Canadian voter than anything else.


          Seeker - I haven't forgotten about LaserQuest....
          "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
          "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

          Comment


          • You were the one who hated it or the one I missed meeting there?

            EDIT: and are you saying that it won't influence voters or just decrying that it will?
            "Wait a minute..this isn''t FAUX dive, it's just a DIVE!"
            "...Mangy dog staggering about, looking vainly for a place to die."
            "sauna stories? There are no 'sauna stories'.. I mean.. sauna is sauna. You do by the laws of sauna." -P.

            Comment


            • Originally posted by Seeker
              You were the one who hated it or the one I missed meeting there?
              Neither. I was the one you challenged upon hearing I was moving to London. Been here since december but have been occupied with other distractions....


              Saddened that it will. My fellow posters tell me it isn't a 'smarts' thing, but I fail to see the evidence supporting any conclusion but.
              "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
              "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

              Comment


              • The weekend after this one. Friday or Saturday 7:00PM. E-mail me. Or rather, PM me and then e-mail me.

                I'll bring my friend. Be warned: It's been years since we haven't totally dominated a game.

                Bring someone if you can so we can have four.
                "Wait a minute..this isn''t FAUX dive, it's just a DIVE!"
                "...Mangy dog staggering about, looking vainly for a place to die."
                "sauna stories? There are no 'sauna stories'.. I mean.. sauna is sauna. You do by the laws of sauna." -P.

                Comment


                • So....

                  Predictions for the election date anyone?
                  ·Circuit·Boi·wannabe·
                  "Evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet."
                  Call to Power 2 Source Code Project 2005.06.28 Apolyton Edition

                  Comment


                  • St. Leo:

                    And why would that hurt the Conservatives?

                    After all, we all know how Ujjal wants to stem the tide of privatisation.
                    Scouse Git (2) La Fayette Adam Smith Solomwi and Loinburger will not be forgotten.
                    "Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for..."
                    2015 APOLYTON FANTASY FOOTBALL CHAMPION!

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by Flinx
                      So....

                      Predictions for the election date anyone?
                      The Tories move non confidence shortly after testimony before Gomery wraps up in late April or early May. That puts the election in early June.
                      (\__/)
                      (='.'=)
                      (")_(") This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your signature to help him gain world domination.

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                      • Son of a *****! Even the CBC is publishing critiques of our parliamentary system.


                        Handling Scandal: How Canada measures up
                        CBC News Online | April 5, 2004

                        Reporter: Brian Stewart

                        The federal sponsorship scandal has been dominating federal politics and the national media ever since the auditor general released her report in February.

                        We're going beyond the details of the scandal to the bigger issues it raises beginning with how such a spending fiasco could happen here in Canada in the first place and whether other countries are more immune to corruption.

                        When Canada admits scandals, it often likes to think other democracies behave worse.

                        But this scandal, tens of millions of untracked dollars gushing out to friends of government, is breathtakingly crude by advanced democratic standards.

                        Washington's Congress certainly has scandals, few recently as blatantly partisan. In the United States, the sponsorship abuses would have been hard to even imagine under the fierce glare of congressional committees and thousands of budget inspectors.

                        In Britain's Parliament, financial scandals are rare. MPs and civil servants are sternly eagle-eyed in money matters.

                        Ottawa's scandal astonishes Canadian Anthony King who lives in Britain and is one of the world's leading experts in democratic government.

                        "Looking from several thousand miles away, one of the oddest things about the Canadian experience is that people thought they could get away with it. No Brit, whether politician or civil servant or people in a semi-governmental organization or an advertising agency, would imagine for a moment that they could bring it off," King says.

                        The reason: ever since the late Victorian era, Britain's top civil servants have been both powerful and protected from political pressure. They've special powers to account for all money.

                        "The British equivalent of the Canadian deputy minister is somebody called the permanent secretary in each government department, and he is... the accounting officer for the department," King says. "He is held legally and politically responsible for every penny that the department sends out, wherever it goes. I should have thought that any permanent British secretary would find it very difficult to let this kind of thing happen. He would be professionally obliged himself to blow the whistle."

                        By comparison, Canadian civil service independence has been eroding since the Trudeau era, according to Patrick Boyer, former Tory MP, now political affairs writer. "The senior officials were being drawn in to the political side of selling and being responsible for the electoral success of the government, and meanwhile, the elected officials were getting more and more into the operational side of the administering of government," Boyer says. "So we effectively lost that arm's-length relationship. We have very few checks or balances in the Canadian system of government. That was one more that disappeared through the '60s and '70s, and we see the end result of that today."

                        Another problem, our Parliament seems less vigilant than British and American bodies or those in Australia and New Zealand. They had more active committees studying money flows. Our MPs are far more enthralled by television performance than by lengthy service, and often media-ignored backwaters of committees. In fairness, our MPs on committees don't have as much time or staff as in those other legislatures to follow government spending, but perhaps above all, party discipline in Canada is much tighter than in Congress or Westminster. This means members of governing parties are often reluctant to inquire into questionable activities.

                        Not so in Washington, certainly not in London where sheer numbers of MPs make subservience less a factor. Canadian David Docherty, a political scientist, has closely studied both systems and agrees Britain encourages more MP initiative.

                        "They [the U.K.] have a much larger House of Commons, some 650 plus members," Docherty says. "The result of that is not everybody sees themselves as potential cabinet ministers. You've got an awful lot of private members with a great deal of time on their hands who can become parliamentarians and specialize in that exact type of thing."

                        Even our auditors general admit they're not as independent as British counterparts. They've repeatedly asked for direct funding from Parliament, but instead have to annually ask the Treasury Board for funding. That puts them ultimately at the mercy of the prime minister's inner circle of power. British MPs would never stand for that. They decide in all-party committee what the auditor will get, then inform the prime minister.

                        Prime Minister Martin is introducing new safety measures to try to check corruption, but reform is in early stages. Meanwhile, Canada has much to learn about watching public money from others who seem to do it better.


                        They even use that six letter word *gasp* reform!
                        (\__/)
                        (='.'=)
                        (")_(") This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your signature to help him gain world domination.

                        Comment


                        • Oh, how I love that word!

                          REFOOOORRMM!
                          Scouse Git (2) La Fayette Adam Smith Solomwi and Loinburger will not be forgotten.
                          "Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for..."
                          2015 APOLYTON FANTASY FOOTBALL CHAMPION!

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by notyoueither
                            Son of a *****! Even the CBC is publishing critiques of our parliamentary system.


                            It's almost as if they were... impartial.^-^
                            Blog | Civ2 Scenario League | leo.petr at gmail.com

                            Comment


                            • Prime Minister Gilles Duceppe? That's just one of the way-out-there ideas making the rounds on Ottawa's cocktail circuit
                              SUSAN DELACOURT
                              OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

                              OTTAWA—As the threat of a snap election hangs over Ottawa, a cottage industry seems to have developed, churning out wild political scenarios.

                              Suddenly, everyone is a pundit and prognosticator, with pet theories on how an election could be avoided. If you'd like to try this at home, here are just a few of the way-out-there ideas feeding the buzz around the federal corridors and on the cocktail circuit.

                              Each one paves the way for even more outrageous speculation.

                              Prorogue, Play Turtle: Serious people are talking about this scenario, in which Prime Minister Paul Martin would avoid the collapse of his government by simply shutting down the House of Commons and retreating into a shell until the coast is clear.

                              Here would be his reasoning: The opposition parties are paralyzing Parliament with all their games and election threats. Nothing is getting done and Canadians are disgusted. Moreover, all the polls are showing, in overwhelming numbers, that citizens would like to hear more from Justice John Gomery's inquiry into the sponsorship scandal before judging the parties in a general election.

                              So it follows, according to this theory, that Martin could shut down Parliament, thereby denying the opposition parties any opportunity to defeat the government during the day-to-day business of the Commons. All he'd have to do is brazen out the opposition's outrage until it dies down — by normal media attention-span standards, about a week.

                              In a month or two, when the furor has subsided and Gomery has stopped hearing from witnesses, Martin could pull the plug and go into an election when the political climate is less toxic toward Liberals.

                              UPSIDE: It almost sounds plausible, doesn't it?

                              DOWNSIDE: The outcry might not die down, and in fact, might increase.

                              Handing over the keys to 24 Sussex: This one has also been the subject of idle musing by Liberal insiders.

                              Say, for the sake of argument, that Martin simply wearies of the daily barrage and instead of calling an election, marches over to Rideau Hall and says to Governor General Adrienne Clarkson: "Stephen Harper has essentially been running the show in Parliament, working with the other opposition leaders, so why don't you ask the Conservative leader if he wants to take over?"

                              After all, the prime minister of Canada is the person who commands the confidence of the House.

                              It's not such a stretch, either. Back last fall, when the opposition parties were negotiating the terms of supporting the throne speech, Harper and the other leaders talked about making this case to the Governor General. Their worry was that Martin would provoke his own government's collapse whenever the poll numbers looked favourable.

                              What would happen thenis that the Conservatives would be even less able than Liberals to hold things together and that they would have to plunge the country into an election with the memory of their governing failure fresh in the public's mind. Martin could point out on the campaign trail that Harper had to rely on separatists to prop up his fragile rule; perhaps the Conservative leader would have had to invite Conservative senators into his cabinet to round out regional representation.

                              UPSIDE: Might take that smug smile off Harper's face when he suddenly finds himself prime minister.

                              DOWNSIDE: Harper might make it work and end up surviving longer than Martin before an election needs to be called.

                              Prime Minister Gilles Duceppe: This is by far the most outrageous scenario. In it, Canada does go through an election, in which Quebec votes en masse while the rest of the country fragments among the other three parties and a smattering of smaller parties and independents.

                              Do the arithmetic: The Bloc gets all 75 seats in Quebec. The other 233 seats would be divided roughly three ways, but because of the presence of independents or Greens, none get as many as the Bloc. Say, for the sake of wild speculation, the Conservatives get 74 seats, the Liberals get 74, the New Democrats get 74 too — a three-way tie, with another 11 seats scattered among Greens, the Marijuana Party and independents. Would the Governor General be obliged to at least ask Duceppe to form a government? What if he said yes?

                              UPSIDE: When Quebec separates, it takes the rest of Canada with it.

                              DOWNSIDE: Kind of embarrassing, internationally.
                              Blog | Civ2 Scenario League | leo.petr at gmail.com

                              Comment


                              • The GG would ask Duceppe if he COULD form a government. The answer of course would have to be no.
                                "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
                                "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

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