James Travers has an interesting piece in the Toronto Star today regarding PM Martin running out of ethical capital. The whole column is quote worth so I suggest you read the whole thing.
...Bankrupt and Third World are surely as fine a fit today as they were in 1995. Tailored by more than the sponsorship scandal, they drape a country that is economically sound but ethically destitute.
How else to measure the affairs of a state that in a matter of weeks heard testimony that federal Liberals in Quebec pocketed $300,000 in taxpayers money while mismanaging some $330 million, witnessed defections and deceit on Parliament Hill and missed the humour in speculation that Belinda Stronach, or, for that matter, Justin Trudeau have the political right stuff?
...Who would have guessed a year ago that money-stuffed envelopes and gangland threats would join the political lexicon, that a single vote could elevate the demonstrably unqualified to Cabinet, or that an MP wearing a wire and Tim Murphy, the Prime Minister's top political adviser, would barter loyalty against rewards, public trust against personal advancement?
What's worse is that all of this — and too much more to list — is unfolding on the watch of a Prime Minister who promised to savage the democratic deficit with all the ferocity he applied to the fiscal deficit.
Instead, Martin is wildly spending what's left of this government's ethical capital. Rather than distance the ruling party from the recent past, he's reminding anyone who still cares that one Liberal wields power much like another.
Now I am clearly partisan but this whole thing is above partisan politics. Check out the David Frum video here from CTV Countdown (click on the link near Mike Duffy). He is right about the "everybody does it" line. Politicians lie and cheat because we reward them for it. We have to have more self-respect and more respect for our Country than this. This government and the Chretien government before it have proven themselves beyond support. We punish this behaviour to protect democracy in this country. It is our duty in this democracy to do our part to hold our elected officials to account because, as the expression goes, we get the government we deserve. I, for one, want more.
