Harper Lies: 37 Days, 37 Lies
I have put a bulletin board (yes with real - not virtual - cork) on my
front lawn to list a lie for each day of the campaign. As I said to
friends and neighbours, I was sickened by how much the current Prime
Minister lied or misrepresented the truth over he past five years, and
then simply refused to acknowledge his contradictions.
I ask my
neighbours -- and you -- to watch the lies as they unfold during the
election, and then make your choice on who to vote for if truth and
integrity matter to you.
Lie #19
Harper promised in 2006 to get rid of patronage and even create an
independent appointments commissioner. He lied and subsequently has
appointed more patronage appointment to agencies than almost any other
Prime Minister. As one Tory insider said: “no one cares.”
“Harper makes no apologies as pork and patronage feed election campaign” Canadian Press, March 31, 2011
There’s nothing like a serving of pork and patronage on the election trail.
Prime
Minister Stephen Harper is making no apologies for hundreds of
Conservative patronage appointments as he campaigns through Atlantic
Canada.
A Tory hiring binge at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities
Agency has sparked an investigation by the Public Service Commission of
Canada in response to a Liberal MP’s complaint.Harper, asked about the
issue Thursday in Halifax before he flew on to Newfoundland, shrugged it
off as a non-starter.
“If you look at the nominations, if you
look at the appointments our government has made, you will find that
two-thirds of appointments have no links at all with the Conservative
party,” Harper said in Halifax.“We base our appointments first and
foremost on qualifications.”
The Liberal campaign quickly
extrapolated the prime minister’s math to suggest that Conservative
partisans have snapped up more than 1,500 of some 4,700 Harper
government appointments over the past five years.
The Liberals are
reminding voters that Harper shelved his 2006 election promise of an
independent appointments commissioner after his first choice for the job
— a prominent Conservative fundraiser — was rejected by the opposition.
|
