[Bcma-l] CMA Clip Serv: Harper cabinet unleashes flood of patronage
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:02:00 -0700
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns=3D"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang=3D"en" lang=3D"en">=
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv=3D"content-type" content=3D"text/html;charset=3Dutf-8"/>
<meta http-equiv=3D"Content-Style-Type" content=3D"text/css"/>
</head>
<body>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D"4">
<span style=3D" font-size:16pt">
<b>Harper cabinet unleashes flood of patronage</b></span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D"2">
<span style=3D" font-size:10pt">
The Canadian Press, Sunday, August 30, 2009</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D"2">
<span style=3D" font-size:10pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Weeks before Stephen Harper named some of his closest Tory friends
to the Senate, his cabinet quietly approved a flood of appointments to
federal boards that also rewarded party faithful.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
At least 20 of the 111 appointments made Aug. 4 went to identifiable
federal and provincial Conservative donors and supporters.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
That includes a failed candidate in Vancouver, a top organizer with
the Nova Scotia party, and a would-be Senate nominee from Alberta.</span><=
/font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
The postings come with per diems of up to $450 for part-time
positions and salaries of up to $118,000 a year for full-time posts.</span=
></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Some of the bodies involved were: the Immigration and Refugee
Board, Canada Pension Plan review tribunals, employment insurance
referee boards, the parole board, coastal pilotage authorities, port
authorities and museum boards.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Nearly a third of the posts were first-time assignments and the
remainder were renewals of three-year terms set to expire in late
October or November.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
The rush of appointments followed a little-noticed series of judicial
appointments to superior courts across the country in July.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
That round brought the total number of superior court judges
appointed by the Harper government to 201 since 2006.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
It also further fuelled opposition claims that the prime minister has
abandoned election promises of transparency and merit-based public-
service and judicial appointments.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Conservative appointments to courts, boards, quasi-judicial tribunals
and Crown corporations now total an estimated 3,000 since Harper
became prime minister.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
The Tories are also closing in on the Liberals in the Senate after
Harper's appointment of nine senators Thursday, including at least
two close advisers.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Several of the earlier judicial posts went to lawyers with Tory
connections.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Lawrence O'Neill is a former Progressive Conservative MP from
Nova Scotia whose anti-abortion positions were the subject of
controversy when he was named to the bench in 2007.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
And Ronald Stevens was a member of the Alberta Conservative party,
a sitting member of the legislature, and former attorney general, when
he was appointed in May.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Harper has yet to establish his promised Public Appointments
Commission to set standards and criteria for cabinet nominations to
federal posts. That despite the fact that Treasury Board documents
show a four-person secretariat set up to support the commission has
cost taxpayers a total of $3.6 million since 2006.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Liberal MP Dan McTeague said Harper should be concerned that
voters will be wary of him following his failure to deliver on his
accountability and transparency promises from the past two elections.</spa=
n></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
He added that the public should not have to dredge through Google or
newspaper clippings to determine if there are political connections
behind the scores of appointments the government hands out.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
"These were things that were part of his pledge to make Parliament
more accountable and the process to be more transparent," McTeague
said.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
"He has done everything that he has criticized. I think the prime
minister and his team should be well aware of the fact that there
frankly isn't a single pledge they can make now or down the road that
the Canadian public can take seriously."</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
A spokesman defended the prime minister's approach, noting Harper
shelved the Public Appointments Commission after the opposition
parties opposed his nomination to lead the new agency -- former
Calgary energy executive Gwyn Morgan.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
"The opposition decided to play partisan political games with that
nomination and, as such, our government was unable to fill the
position," said Dimitri Soudas.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
New Democrat MP Joe Comartin called for the creation of a special
committee of the House of Commons to review all federal
appointments and establish a "code of laws" that would eventuall=
y be
the standard for public service nominations.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
He also called on Harper to expand the jurisdiction of advisory panels
for judgeships and re-establish a system set up by the previous Liberal
government that allowed the Commons justice committee to
interview nominees to the Supreme Court.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Among Conservative supporters or those with Tory connections who
received posts or had them renewed in the August round of
appointments:</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"SymbolMT">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"SymbolMT">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
• </span></font>
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Lorne Mayencourt, who ran unsuccessfully in Vancouver in the last
federal election, was named chair of the employment insurance
boards of referees for B.C.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"SymbolMT">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"SymbolMT">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
• </span></font>
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
David Usherwood, who placed ninth as a Progressive Conservative
candidate in the 2004 Alberta Senate nominee election, received a
second three-year appointment as chair of the employment insurance
referee boards in Alberta.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"SymbolMT">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"SymbolMT">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
• </span></font>
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Geoffrey Machum, who chaired the Nova Scotia Progressive
Conservative leadership convention in 2006, got a second three-year
appointment to the Halifax Port Authority.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"SymbolMT">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"SymbolMT">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
• </span></font>
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Brian Coburn, an Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP under
former premier Mike Harris, received a second three-year
appointment as a citizenship judge.</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
<br />
</span>
</font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
---  30   ---</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
_______________________________</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
Jim Harding, ED</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
BC Museums Association</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
<font face=3D"Times New Roman">
<span style=3D" font-size:12pt">
(250) 356-5694</span></font>
</div>
<div align=3D"left">
</div>
</body>
</html>