'Farcically Ill-Equipped'

'Farcical' is right.

Stephen Maher in The Vancouver Sun yet takes Tony Slush apart. Title: 'Up Muskoka River without a paddle'.

So Clement's defence is that the mayors made the recommendations, which they didn't, and that Baird made the decision, which he didn't.

We need to know why there was no paperwork for the auditor general, because we are up Muskoka River without a paddle if politicians are able to hide their files from the auditor general, the only official with the power to pierce the veil of secrecy in Ottawa.

Clement's explanations are gibberish, and he does not appear to have the judgment necessary for his current job as president of Treasury Board, the minister in charge of enforcing spending rules.

Whether it's gazebos, the long-form census or the InSite file, Cashmere Tony is an embarrassment.

To everyone but PM SHithead himself, of course.

Prime ministers need loyal servants, so even though Clement's G8 shenanigans show that he is farcically ill-equipped to carry out his job, Harper is unlikely to move him or to force him to fully account for the rule-breaking porkfest in Muskoka.

But good on the MSM for staying on this.

Shame

So. How did a guy who won his House of Commons seat by a measly 28 votes in 2006 wallop his competition by nearly 11,000 votes two years later?

Simple corruption.

The NDP is accusing federal Conservative cabinet minister Tony Clement of using a controversial, $50-million G8 legacy fund to buy re-election, prompting a heated denial from the government.

Municipal documents obtained by the New Democrats show Clement met with local mayors and councillors in the midst of the 2008 election campaign. They discussed how to identify projects that could be eligible for the legacy funding.

Twelve days after that meeting, a local news outlet reported that Clement had posted video endorsements from "local townspeople, mayors and council members" on his campaign website.

Somebody needs to investigate. In particular, this bit:

The auditor general has also criticized the government for shutting bureaucrats out of the process and for maintaining no paper trail to explain how or why the projects were selected.

However, hundreds of pages of municipal documents obtained by the NDP through provincial freedom of information legislation, show that federal bureaucrats did in fact participate in local meetings about the legacy fund -- including the one held during the 2008 campaign.

The documents also show that municipal officials were told to direct all questions and send funding applications to Clement's constituency office, not the government.

Shame on the people of Muskoka who sold their vote for a bunch of crappers. But the bureaucrats who sold their integrity should be fired and prosecuted.

As for Tony Slush, I'll keep my opinions on his just punishment to myself.

For now.

Image source. The blogger said presciently back in April this year:

Sweet for Tony Clement and the Conservative Party. They’ll probably get re-elected in Clement’s riding given all the tax money which has been spent there.

ADDED: Alison does the math.

Bribery and a Boot to the Nads

So, the pork ladelled into Cashmere Tony's riding was supposed to have been to reduce border congestion.

The Canadian Press dropped an incendiary bomb on an otherwise torpid campaign on Monday, reporting that an early draft of Fraser’s report found that “Parliament was misinformed” about some of the spending. It indicated that the government asked Parliament to okay $83 million for a fund to reduce border congestion, while intending to use $50 million of it to spruce up Industry Minister Tony Clement’s Huntsville riding, far from any border.

I'd say it did a dandy job of that. I can personally confirm that there are no big rigs idling on the streets of Huntsville waiting for their turn at US Customs.

No. Wait. That money was intended as a 'thank you' to Muskokans.

Claude Doughty, mayor of Huntsville, the main site of the summit in Ontario’s Muskoka region, defended the program, saying some of the projects were meant more as a “thank you” to area municipalities for being host than as G8-related facilities.

“I don’t think there was ever any intent that some of them would be used by the world leaders,” he said. “You have to appreciate that a lot of people in Muskoka did a lot of work to prepare for the G8, myself included. And for those municipalities that went out of their way to really do those things, this was a bit of a token of saying, ‘Thank you.’ ”

A great big thank you that Muskokans are really really grateful for.

Oh. Wait.

However, some of the “legacy” items are largely unused. The University of Waterloo’s environmental research centre, completed 11 months ago, remains deserted and without signage. The echoing hallways of a summit centre are largely bare save for pieces of community art, while a brand-new seniors centre, banquet hall and drop-in daycare were empty on Monday afternoon.

But. But. Other sites of big events have had thank-you dough thrown at them too.

From the second, later, version of the draft:

2.2 - In the past, federal funds have been made available to some regions hosting international or Prime Minister-led events on Canada's behalf. Regions have benefited from several million dollars made available for hosting. For example, in April 2001, Quebec City received about $4.5 million as it hosted the Summit of the Americas, and we noted a $5 million fund attached to the June 2002 G8 Summit in Kananaskis.

I haven't seen anybody note this. Muskoka is worth TEN TIMES Quebec City or Kananaskis?

Even 5 million bucks fraudulently acquired divvied up by a lying (see census) cabinet minister, a small town mayor, and a resort (?????) manager is too much.

But TEN TIMES that?

And leaving aside the corruption, lying, and sheer greed, the whole deal is a GINORMOUS slap in the face to Torontonians, as noted by that left-wing scribbler, Joe Warmington, who, remember, himself got caught up in the police state.

But my favourite expenditure of the dozens to spruce up Industry Minister Tony Clement’s Parry Sound-Muskoka riding is the $274,000 on portable toilets. It may be a crappy business, but not on the day you cash the cheque from the federal government. At least the Muskoka outhouses had doors, unlike the humiliation the wrongfully incarcerated experienced at the Eastern Ave. lockup.

It's sheer WIN for the ReformaTories. Bribe greedy, small-minded yahoos and AT THE SAME TIME boot TO in the nads.