Two news stories from Parliament Hill perfectly encapsulate the hypocrisy and lack of accountability from the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Carney Appoints Four New Senators
This week, Carney appointed four new senators. One of them, Thomas Pitfield, advised Carney in last year’s election campaign and served as his principal secretary. We have no problem with his appointment. Political patronage is a fact of partisan politics. To the victor go the spoils.
The cynicism kicks in with the appointment of Richard Martel, a sitting Conservative MP from Quebec. Carney and his acolytes will no doubt trumpet this appointment as cross-party ecumenism. Others may view it as a power play as Carney seeks a firmer grip on the levers of parliamentary power than the minority government voters gave him in last year’s election.
Undermining Election Results
The Laurentian elite who slam U.S. President Donald Trump for questioning the outcome of the 2020 election seem unconcerned that Carney has overturned the result of last year’s election by engineering the defection of six MPs. Four Conservatives and one NDP member crossed the floor to the Liberals and now Martel will trigger a byelection with his Senate move. It also guarantees him job security and a fat pension.
Sure, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre needs to up his game in caucus management. But Carney’s unrelenting quest for a majority government has real consequences.
Ethics Committee Shutdown
In a related story, Liberal MPs shut down an attempt by Conservative MPs to have the House of Commons ethics committee hold hearings on a controversial plan by the Carney government and the government of British Columbia to acquire 2,200 vacant condo units and turn them into affordable housing. The two governments announced last week they would use “innovative financing tools” to create rent-to-own housing. It was later revealed that the project will cost about $1.45 billion in debt financing, with the feds and the province each contributing $150 million. Critics have called it a tax-funded bailout for developers.
In a minority government, opposition MPs have control over parliamentary committees and can hold the government to account. Not so in a majority.
Liberals seem unable to accept that voters put them on a short leash with a minority government. Thanks to cynical ploys like this, we have zero transparency and disillusioned voters have lost trust in the integrity of our electoral system.
