Harper wears his flip flops proudly when it comes to transparency and accountability in governmnent
I think the title sets out what this post will accomplish.
Back in late 2005/ early 2006, we had an election going on, it would prove to be an election that, for better or worse (I say worse), changed the political map in Canada. See up until now, the Liberals had been in power for about 13 yrs.
2 things happened to change this:
1) Stephen Harper realized that if he united the right, that he had a chance of forming government
2) The sponsorship scandal
Since the sponsorship scandal was a huge deal during that election, Stephen Harper, wisely campaigned on accountability and transparency in government.
“Restoring accountability will be one of the major priorities of our new government. Accountability is what ordinary Canadians, working Canadians, those people who pay their bills, pay their taxes, expect from their political leaders.”
As with most promises Harper makes, he has not kept this one.
Here are some examples where he has flip flopped on transparency and accountability in government
- The Afghan detainee issue - the Cons have refused to hand over documents even after they lost a vote in the House on this. Also, some say that one of the reasons Harper prorogued in Dec.2009 was to hide from this issue.
- Guergis/Jaffer scandal - Harper will not mention what the allegations against her are. Now it’s understandable to an extent since he has asked the RCMP to investigate but on some basic level the Canadian public deserves to know what they are so that the rumours end and also so Parliament can focus on the real issues.
- the $3billion slush fund - The Cons asked for this money last spring and refused to fully explain what it would be used for. Unfortunately for Canadians, they got enough votes in the House to get this approved. The Cons did not put this into the budget, which they had presented a week before and asked for the money to be given out at their discretion.
- the media - one way to restore accountability and transparency in government is through the media and using it to speak to Canadians. Stephen Harper instead likes to control the media and press conferences, rarely speaks directly to Canadians (but likes going on US cable news) and is secretive and selective over which media he will speak to and what information will be given out.
So those are just a few instances where Stephen Harper has flip flopped when it comes to his promise of improving accountability and transparency in government. I know there are more examples of this, so if you have any, share them!
