cktimes.ca Archives for At Issue
At Issue
The Culture of Not Knowing Right from Wrong
Tuesday, October 8, 2002
Last week, Premier Ernie Eves effectively fired Tourism Minister Cam Jackson for overspending on the government tab. Jackson resigned, but he was really shamed out of the job after Windsor MPP, Sandra Pupatello raised the spectre of Jackson's over spending. Jackson and his staff billed taxpayers for $103,722 from January, 2000, to April, 2002, while Jackson served a prior stint as tourism minister, and then as citizenship minister.Gives Eves credit. He had this to say. "The important thing, I think, when you make a mistake in anything in life is to acknowledge it, to correct it as quickly as you can and get on with it. That wasn't necessarily always done in this case." It was a forthright and honest critique of a very bad situation. For Ernie's sake, let's hope that doesn't come back to haunt
him. Cam Jackson was expendable. How about if Finance Minister Janet Ecker does something mildly scandalous?
That is yet to be seen. But surely the Ontario Tories don't have a monopoly on questionable ethical conduct. For the last few days, we've also watched at the federal level as Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay denied he did anything inappropriate by giving a friend a bunch of money. Mr. MacAulay faces accusations of giving a $70,000 contract to a friend and agent, Everett Roche, in the last two federal elections. Mr. MacAulay spent most of the end of last week deciding "what actually happened." In other words, he didn't know.
At the end of the week, he had come up with a story. Mr. Roche, although a friend of Mr. MacAulay, didn't get the money. He works for a firm that got the money! Shazzam, see, you get it. My friend had nothing to do with that. "The firm" fit all the treasury board criteria, so it wasn't wrong for them to get the money. Meanwhile, "the firm" is providing MacAulay and others in this department help on communication issues.
You can just imagine how former Defence Minister Art Eggleton feels. He was unceremoniously fired after it turned up that he had given consulting contracts to a former girlfriend. MacAulay will surely spend part of this week, trying to make up a better story.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. But really, it's all about "optics". Both Mr. Jackson's spending discretions and Mr. MacAulay, judgment were probably done with the best of intentions. Even more so, they were probably done without the knowledge of each individual minister. How else could you explain why Lawrence MacAulay would need some time in order to give the media a proper answer. He simply didn't know what was going on. In the fog of political scandal that is entirely understandable. Unfortunately for him, the optics of the situation mirror hog manure near Lake Erie. You don't want to go there.
Mr. Jackson had another problem. When you are the MPP from Burlington, a stone's throw from Toronto, how do you justify all those steak dinners at expensive Toronto restaurants? He made the silly remark that he was entertaining other tourism minister from across Canada and "I really wasn't thinking of taking them to Swiss Chalet." Needless to say, Swiss Chalet fans were completely alienated.
Of course, there was also the $120 tip on one of the steak dinners. This is the kind of thing that sends my agricultural readers up the bend. While they take care of Bessie, sometimes they don't even come close to making that kind of coin. I don't know. I think $120 is almost unexplainable. Or maybe it was 15% of a bill that small potatoes like me, never see.
Simply put, it's part of a culture. In MacAulay's case, it's the old federal Liberal, deny, deflect and defy. In Jackson's case he got caught up in something which even Premier Eves says has to be changed. Last week, he called for Management Board Chairman, David Tsubouchi to make the rules more precise. In other words, they'll be tougher. There must be an election in the wind.
A few years ago I was consulting for a very large crown corporation located in Ottawa. After working on a project for quite some time, I was invited to speak in Ottawa at their location. After my presentation, I was told I'd be taken out for dinner that night along with others from the crown corporation. On arrival at the restaurant, I was taken aback from the
"hangers on" who came along for the ride. I was almost embarrassed by the prices on the menu. But the bill was paid for courtesy of the tax payers of Canada. I left Ottawa knowing this stuff goes on all the time.
Some of you might say it happens in Chatham-Kent too! Well, I don't know. But sometimes, in our quest to do the right thing, something gets lost in the translation. Former Tourism Minister Cam Jackson learned the hard way. Lawrence MacAulay seemingly still doesn't get it. But in the culture they come from , I think I understand.
Philip Shaw, farms 830 acres near Dresden, Ontario. He holds a Masters of Agricultural Economics and Business Degree from the University of Guelph and is a well-known commentator on agricultural issues in print, on radio and over satellite in Canada and the United States. In the Chatham-Kent Times, Phil will use his frank and forthright writing style to address political and economic issues from the local to the international stage. He is a keen observer of political life at all levels, reads widely and has travelled the world to gather fodder for his column. See what's At Issue this week.
