Happy Phew! Year

Well, may I first wish a Happy New Year to all three of our readers!

In Friday's Montreal Gazette column, Mark Abley printed a United States Parish Hall weekly programme : Monday: Alcoholics Anonymous; Tuesday: Abused Spouses; Wednesday: Eating disorders; Thursday: Say No to Drugs; Friday: Teen Suicide Watch; Saturday: Soup Kitchen; Sunday Sermon: America's Joyous Future. The future can't get much better than that!

To lower the bar a tad, have you noticed the people of Somalia described as "pirates"? For some time, boats from all over the globe have been robbing the seas around Somalia of their livelihood, i.e. fish. Secondly, those same countries have been disposing of nuclear, and other, wastes in the waters around the Somali beaches. When their fishermen got a little upset and finally started to grab anything, or anyone, they could and hold them to ransom as a last desperate attempt to halt this travesty, the United Nations, and many other nations, censured Somalia for this "crime" of piracy. How would you react if the USA started dumping their garbage into Canada? More than they already do, I mean. NIMB! (Not In My Backyard!)

Finally, our experts have looked into our trust of professionals. Most categories are in decline except for Canadian soldiers. They have improved in our trust level by 11%. Pharmacists are down 25%; airline pilots down 19%. Accountants, at 47%, are still more trusted than church leaders, and national politicians, at 25% trust, are only ahead of car salespeople by 5%. Accountants more reliable than politicians, you say? Perhaps if the conscientious Auditor-General Sheila Fraser became Prime Minister and Amazon.ca ran the civil service, maybe...just maybe...we could have a trustworthy and efficient democracy!

Oink! Oink!

Very little is sacred these days. As Cole Porter would have put it, "Anything goes!" Since the Jaffer affair, lobbying has become a hot topic. Nevertheless, no one appears to object to lobbying, in one form or another. It is baffling! In our democracies, Ottawa's Parliament, the USA's Congress or the British House of Commons and House of Lords, it is not a violation to "persuade" people in power to sway their decisions. Persuasion for profit? Influence peddling? More like bribery - and viewed as criminal - outside politics.

What of party politics? Good? Sound? Honest? The great Winston Churchill changed parties twice. In those good old days a child of the elite went to Eton or Harrow; Oxford or Cambridge; short stint in the Grenadier or Coldstream Guards and then...decided which of the parties offered the best chance of a job! Jean Charest is a Conservative. He ran for the federal Conservative leadership in 1993 and lost to Kim Campbell, who got trounced in her first, and only, election. So, Jean became a provincial Liberal and is now Premier of Quebec with three consecutive minority election wins.

Then there is the matter of how many "jobs" an elected Member of Parliament, etc., can hold/manage. If s/he is a lawyer, it is acceptable to continue to practice. Run a construction company, you do not have to quit that job, or sell the company, to work serving the people!

The last straw happened yesterday. The Auditor-General, Sheila Fraser, courteously made a request to audit the expense accounts of the MPs, et al. The members of all parties, (about to embark on a seven-day sojourn of R and R) ran for the exits to avoid the press, and the reply to the A-G was, "No!" Such arrogance is appalling. Who the hell is in charge in Canada? Does the A-G need to ask? The figures spent by parliamentarians, reported by the CBC, is half a billion...that's right, billion dollars. Surely such a huge sum has to qualify for audit. That the members were reluctant to submit is immediately suspect.

The whole rotten bag-of-tricks needs replacing. I don't mean by electing Michael Ignatieff as P.M. That would be more of the same. We urgently require a national enquiry to determine EXACTLY what the duties of Members of Parliament, and their flunkies, hangers-on, lobbyists, etc., etc. are. What, EXACTLY, are their job descriptions, responsibilities, vacation periods (including periods of proroguing) salaries, extras (especially the extras). It won't happen, you say? You are probably right but until we, the voters, tell them what we will accept, you can bet your breeches the greed element in  them will go unchecked. The oinking 'on the Hill' has become deafening....