Going To School On Scandals

Apologies to playwright Richard Sheridan for the title of this week's missive, but my intent here is to rank in order of cost to taxpayers the plethora of scandals that seem to have erupted in Canada. Mind you, Canada is not unique in this regard -- think of the current Tea Party legislative gridlock in the U.S., the LIBOR mess in the U.K., or any and all political activity in Italy -- but the Canadian stuff is, given its rather staid and somewhat boring history, rather unusual.*

Number 1. In terms of taxpayer cost, according to government audits, such costs are in the neighbourhood of one billion dollars plus and the winner (if that is not too awkward a term) is undoubtedly the provincial Liberal Party of Ontario. Cancelling gas plant construction and paying a staggering penalty will do that. Add in incredible incompetence involving medical helicopter acquisition and the botching of an electronic health system, well, as former Leaf owner Harold Ballard once put it, "a million here, a million there, and pretty soon the money adds up."

Unbelievably, this government is still in power, with legal actions pursued against -- no one.

Number 2. A close second would be the City of Montreal, where organized crime has raked off a high percentage of public construction money. The current enquiry into all this estimates that several million dollar somehow found their way into various pockets, with the favoured method of transportation being brown paper bags.

Montreal is now on its third Mayor within the year.

Number 3. Step forward the Canadian Senate. Various transgressions of Senators, particularly Patrick Brazeau, Mac Harb, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy, have cost taxpayers some $300.000, although at the time of this writing, the audit on the matter is still under way.

Number 4. Toronto's Mayor, the rotund Rob Ford, has been accused of a multitude of sins, from not understanding the right of the press to invade his personal privacy to being rude and short of temper. Charges of alcoholism have surfaced, and Ford himself has confessed to taking crack cocaine. It is becoming more and more apparent that the man should step down, not just for Toronto's sake, but for his own.

The Number 4 ranking is given, however, because Ford is a fiscal conservative, has a deep regard for the taxpayer, has saved Toronto several million dollars, and has cost taxpayers not a red cent.

Things are rarely black and white.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The good Lady is in my opinion overly dismissive of Canadian history and its tendency to boredom. The life of Louis Riel is drama incarnate (Harry Somers wrote an opera on the man, for goodness sakes!) the true story of Adam Dollard as researched by Donald Creighton is gripping, and then there is that Canadian take on Romeo and Juliet involving Pierre Sevigny and Gerda Munsinger.
Enough said.