Chretienssoldiersservetheirleader

Chretien's soldiers serve their leader
By ROY CLANCY -- Calgary Sun-February 14, 2001
http://www.sunmedia.ca/CalgarySun/columnist.html
Sometimes the prime minister's thought processes are painfully transparent.
As Jean Chretien wandered through a historic exhibit in China featuring 8,000 ancient terracotta warriors and horses Sunday, the thought that immediately popped into his mind was how useful they would be as MPs.
"It would be great in the House of Commons," Chretien reportedly told some of Canada's premiers who were touring the exhibit with him.
"You would just get them up to vote."
If Chretien's comments were an attempt at humour, it's a sure bet few Liberal Members of Parliament would have laughed.
Grit MPs were forced to vote yesterday against a motion to implement their own party's 1993 Red Book promise to appoint an independent ethics commissioner who would report directly to Parliament.
The Canadian Alliance motion, supported by Conservative, NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs, repeated word for word the Liberal Red Book campaign promise on ethics.
Chretien's government declared the vote a confidence motion, meaning all Liberals were ordered to vote against their party's earlier campaign promise.
The two brave MPs who broke ranks will now likely face the kind of oblivion experienced by the terracotta soldiers which were entombed in the earth centuries ago to guard their emperor.
All in all, it was a breathtaking show of hypocrisy and you couldn't blame some of these stalwart soldiers, er ... backbenchers, if they felt like they'd eaten a bit of dirt themselves.
Canada's ethics counsellor is appointed by the prime minister and reports directly to the prime minister, not to Parliament, as the Liberals originally promised.
This has led to no end of controversy since ethics counsellor Howard Wilson cleared his own boss of conflict of interest charges involving government loans to a hotel in Chretien's riding which the prime minister once co-owned.
Wilson, unfazed by constant criticism that he is nothing more than the prime minister's lapdog, jumped into the fray himself this week, revealing it was he who had advised Chretien to break his 1993 campaign promise.
Wilson, revealing why he's been labelled a "toothless watchdog," gummed an explanation that having an independent ethics commissioner who reported to Parliament "could usurp the accountability of the prime minister."
The sad fact, Alliance MP Chuck Strahl points out, is the real concentration of government power these days lies in the Prime Minister's Office or in those he has appointed to important positions.
Wilson's trite assurances aside, it is ridiculous to assume any bureaucrat beholden to the person who signs his paycheques is going to act with complete impartiality.
If the reputation of the ethics commissioner is to be restored, Strahl points out, he must report directly to Parliament, as the auditor general and privacy commissioner do.
Of course, all this foofaraw over the ethics counsellor is overshadowed by the larger issue.
Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark has battered the prime minister for weeks about his involvement in helping a constituent with a criminal record get a $615,000 loan from the federal Business Development Bank
The RCMP are currently investigating the loan and Clark has asked them to investigate phone calls made by the prime minister.
This week he alleged the Liberals went to great lengths to get a friendly face appointed to the bank in the wake of the controversy.
Potentially embarrassing questions lobbed by Clark and Alliance leader Stockwell Day have been met with hostility by Chretien and his lieutenants, who say the allegations are nothing but a smear.
According to Clark, Chretien even pressured him to drop his line of questioning and the Liberals suggested the Tory' parliamentary budget might be increased if they laid off the prime minister.
Recent revelations have raised the possibility there may be more substance to these allegations than meets the eye.
If Chretien's growing irritation and obfuscation comes strictly from feeling his character has been maligned, then the fastest way to remedy the situation is with a clear and impartial examination of all the facts -- by an independent ethics watchdog.
Until that happens, the doubts raised by these allegations will continue to cast a long shadow