The issue of patronage, I'm told, may come up today in Question Period. My contribution to the debate that may occur includes:
Less than a week after Prime Minister Stephen Harper railed against “left-wing ideologues” in Canada's court system, Harper appointed five judges with ties to the Conservative Party of Canada . . . [Read the rest here]
Going through e-mail this morning that has piled up over the last couple of days, I came upon a message from Mike Savage, the Liberal MP from Dartmouth, NS, who is also his party's critic on Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Diane Finley is that department's minister. Savage's office reviewed some recent appointments Finley made to Canada Pension Plan Review Tribunals and to Employment Insurance Act Board of Referees. Lo and behold, Savage finds that 12 appointees have close ties to the Conservative party of Canada.
“Just one week after the Liberal Party told the Reform-Conservatives their time was up, this government's first priority was to guarantee the appointments of top Conservative donors,” Savage said in a release. “[Harper] promised to end political patronage, but clearly this is another promise broken for the government,” he said.
The appointments were made on Sept. 9, just days after that Harper speech in Sault Ste. Marie in which he rallied Conservative supporters by saying that had the Liberals won the government last fall, they would be putting “left-wing ideologues … in the courts, federal institutions, agencies, and the Senate.”
Here's Finley's dozen:
Appointed to Canada Pension Plan Review Tribunals
- Judy Dreeshen – Conservative Campaign Worker
- Joe Spina – Brampton Progressive Conservative MPP, 1995-2003
- Jeffrey Keefe – Donated to Conservative Party Candidate in 2006
- Suzanne Dery – Donated to former Conservative MP Luc Harvey
- Kelley Sherwood – Reform Party activist; appeared in 1997 Reform Party platform
- Arthur Lust – Donated to Conservative MP John Baird in 2008
- James Walsh – Donated to Conservative Party in 2004
- Robbie Grossman – VP of SI. Paul's PC Association
Appointed to Employment Insurance Act Boards of Referees:
- Nick Katalifos – Donated to Conservative MP Maxime Bernier
- Claire-Marie Jadot – Donated to Conservative Party in 2006
- James Caroeneto – Donated to Conservative MP Pat Davidson in 2008
- Heather Jane Chutler – Former member of the Vancouver Quadra riding association board…She is the ex-wife of Geoff Chutler, a Tory activist who ran unsuccessfully in Quadra in 1993 and 1997 for the old Progressive Conservative party.
If you or Mike Savage were in a position to appoint people to any post, both of you of course would seek out either your enemies or those whose philosophy or approach to whatever function – let's say garbage collection, which somehow seems appropriate here – would be diametrically opposed to your POV, right?
David, this is getting rather tiresome. Yesterday you had a piece which seemed to indicate that contributing $250 to the Conservatives bought a judgeship.
Are you trying to say that no-one who has ever contributed to a political party is ineligible for any appointment, regardless of what qualifications they mights have, or is it only if they have contributed to the CPC ?
A general reply to Gaby and Jad: I'm not at all saying these appointments are wrong or ought to be wrong. What I am reporting is that these appts seem to be the very sorts of appointments that the Prime Minister says is wrong at every stump speech he's given in the last three years. And he was in opposition, he and other Conservatives railed at Liberals for doing the very same thing and then the Conservatives campaigned on doing it differently.
That would be Heather “Chutter”. And if being a former member of a riding association, and an ex-wife of someone who once ran for a party qualifies one as an “insider”, there must be a very, very long list of people waiting for promotions.
Is there any indication any of these people aren't qualified for the jobs? Or is it now a rule that any donation, however small and however long ago, to a political party disqualifies one from public office?
David, I think it comes down to a question of degree. If the ONLY qualification is some connection to a political party, then the appointment is wrong. If the person is well-qualified, then the political connection is incidental.
My problem, and perhaps I speak for Gabby as well, is that you only address the political connection, you completely ignore whatever qualifications may or may not exist. If you can dig up the political connection, then surely you are able to make some some kind of comment on the qualifications for the position.
The problem when the Liberals were in power was that they routinely appointed MPs to other positions in order to open up a seat for a star candidate. Ms. St. Augustine in Etobicoke-Lakeshore comes to mind, and she was only the last in a rather long list.