Harper's Ad-scam Money Went to Promote Conservative Candidates in Quebec

The Harper Con Adscam gets curiouser and curiouser. The Conservative Party of Canada launched a lawsuit against the campaign watchdog Elections Canada. This was over the party’s spending in the 2006 campaign to try and squeeze more taxpayer money out of the system to pay for their advertising costs.

Newspaper reports today say the Cons have dropped almost all of the original 34 applicants from the action leaving only two people to take the fight forward. Looks like the CPC Politburo are having some trouble keeping the party faithful faithful. Apparently some former candidates and their official agents are publicly disavowing the advertising scheme.

Other former candidate’s official agents who were named as applicants in the law suit did not even know their names were being used and were never asked for permission to use their names. Others claimed the central party funds were just deposited into local candidate campaign accounts and pulled out again the same day. You gotta wonder how that happens without permission.

One former candidate is quoted as saying $26,000.00 was put in and out of his campaign account and used for advertising “…that was not specifically related to his own campaign.” Opps!

Here is the big kicker. Guess where the additional advertising money was spent! It apparently all went to buying advertising in Quebec. It was targeted to bolster the Harper’s promise of “freer federalism” and in specific support of close races in 10 Quebec ridings the Cons eventually won.

Does this smell like the Conservative version of an Adscam to you too? Party money that is subsidized by the taxpayer used to curry favour with Quebec to save the country? It is not a perfect fit because there is no fraud involved but there is a fit nevertheless.

Check out Impolitical for another take on this issue.

UNLV Studying the Social Capital Influence of Blogs

I recently received an unsolicited comment on the Blog from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas departments of Management Information Systems and Sociology inviting me to participate in a survey investigating the effects of Blogs on “Social Capital.”

I check them out and took the survey and have received a preliminary report on the findings of an early study the UNLV did. I have undertaken to keep the results confidential so far because the results will be published in an academic journal first. I can tell you, based on early reports; the influence in both instances is significant. I can tell you they are a fascinating insight into who blogs and relates to blogs and how they use them.

I am very interested in the influence blogs have both on the institutions who “run” our society from government to the voluntary sector. I am equally interested in the influence they have on individuals. My suspicion that the Internet and Blogs are two inter-related elements in a new revolutionary form of communications is beginning to be proven correct.

I will keep you advised of the developments on this work of UNLV.

Calgary MLA Richard Magnus Announces Retirement From Politics

Richard Magnus (Calgary North Hill) announced today that he is the next PC departee from de PC party. So another veteran that has decided to move on and out of politics. We can expect many more similar announcements like this over the next few weeks I imagine.

Renewal and revitalization of Alberta politics requires it. The Progressive Conservative Party definitely needs to address the issue of political renewal. The party undertook a half-hearted attempt after the less than stellar 2004 election. But that was under old leadership. Now we have new leadership and that brings new opportunity.

The Harper Adscam is Heating up

Kudos to the Ottawa Citizen for delving into the details of the Cons version of Adscam and lets hope they keep up the good work

Citizens better get behind the people at Elections Canada and demand no political interference by the Harper Cons in this investigation. They need to be independent and able to pursue this issue without political pressure or interference.

Remember Jean-Pierre Kingsley? He used to be the Chief Electoral Officer and he “suddenly resigned” last December when he took on the Harper Cons over donor status of convention fees. That decision caused Mr. Harper himself to be caught as contributing over the legal donation limits. I am sure it is merely coincidental that the Chief Electoral Officer resigned shortly after that decision. But you have to wonder.

How Accountable has the Harper Con government been around their much vaunted Federal; Accountability Act? Check out Democracy Watch for some background.

Small wonder we feel we can’t rust this government.

Lessons Learned From Steven Truscott

Let the Steven Truscott story be a warning to those who see the death penalty as unquestionably justified. Let the Steven Truscott story be a warning to those who would blithely try children in adult court and subject to adult sanctions.

The Canadian justice system is a human construct and consequently mistakes get made. Appeals are there to try to minimize their incidence and correct them when they occur.

Systems are like people, they develop cultures, attitudes, patterns and blind spots. Judges are the flesh and blood stuff of human frailty and the judgements they make are mostly honest efforts at rational assessment. They reach their conclusions by weighing evidence and that is based on their experience, insights and a pursuit of practical wisdom. This is all within the laws written for us by our politicians.

The Truscott story show just how wrong and misdirected our systems and judgments can be sometimes. There is a manifestation of this misdirection epitomized in the point made in today’s Globe and Mail editorial. It notes that the original trial judge approached the then federal Minister of Justice (one Mr. Trudeau) attempting to have him launch a prosecution against an author. The author’s offence was that she wrote a book alleging Truscott’s innocence in 1966.

Trudeau declined the invitation to politically interfere in the judicial system as well he ignored the judge’s interference in the political system. We need the judiciary to be feistly independent of politics. We need politicians who value, honour and respect that necessary distance between themselves and the courts.

Steven Truscott finally has seen the benefit of that independent judiciary and lawyers who are well trained and dedicated to protecting citizens from abuse by the state. In light of these events I wonder if Steve Harper is having second thought about his plan to politically interfere with the judicial appointment process. I doubt it. Too bad!

The big lesson from this story for citizens – be careful who you elect and be wary of who they appoint to the bench. Your freedom demands your vigilance.