Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

What does ministerial accountability mean?

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, December 2, 2011 12:54pm - 10 Comments

NDP MP Ryan Cleary thinks Peter MacKay should resign.

“The email trail that has been released doesn’t back up his story,” Cleary, a New Democrat, told CBC News Friday. ”It looks like he lied about it, that’s how it looks. So when you have a federal minister of Canada come out and tell one story and a chain of emails indicate another story and it looks like he’s lying, I think that he has to resign,” Cleary told reporters in St. John’s.

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  • Phil King

    My problem with this behaviour isn’t so much the obvious mis-use of the search and rescue assets, or even the outrageous amount of money spent saving the Minister 110 minutes of  travel.

    Those things bother me of course, and I think it displays an agregious use of taxpayer money, but to me there is another far more disturbing issue.

    And no it’s not that he lied, per se. I expect that from thieves caught in the act, and since I equate most politicians with thieves, I’m not particularly surprised.

    No, the thing that bothers me most, beyond the other things, is that the lie was prepared in advance of the pick up.

    McKay’s staffers spent days pushing back at the military personnel who TOLD them that it was inappropriate, TOLD them that it could very likely blow up in their face, and were FORCED to plan not only the pick up, but THE LIE AS WELL.

    It’s bad enough to lie when caught, but one always hopes that this is a spur of the moment covering up showing merely a lack of good judgement.

    Instead, what we have here is a willful flouting of the rules planned in advance to be covered up if and when the public found out about it.

    PLANNING IN ADVANCE TO MISLEAD CANADIANS IN ORDER TO DO WHAT DID NOT NEED TO BE DONE.

    Think about it. What does that say about McKay, one of the key founders of the CPC?

    I’m utterly aghast. I assumed he was an idiot, but these are not the actions of an idiot. These are the actions of a willful fraudster.

    • Plaid Dinner Jacket

      The actions of Tony Clement’s gazebo party were also the actions of a willful fraudster.

      Come to think of it, so was the in/out affair.

       Dots connecting anyone?

    • Anonymous

      McParland from the NP:
       
      “The best thing about Peter MacKay’s slippery justification for his free ride on the Canadian Forces Cormorant is that it could be true. It probably is true, sort of.
       
      There’s no question the defence minister was on holiday at a remote fishing camp. True, he was leaving his holiday to attend government business.  It might even be true that he’d been angling for a look-see at the helicopter’s search-and-rescue capabilities — he’s a gung-ho kind of guy, and that’s the sort of thing he’d get a kick out of. It’s also entirely believable that high-ups in the air force recognized the advantages of showing off the Cormorant’s capabilities. So when the minister rises in the House of Commons and tells his version of the tale, he’s probably not uttering a total falsehood. Technically.
       
      Whether it accurately reflects events as they actually unfolded is another story. Thanks to email traffic contained in Department of Defence records, (now you understand why Harper hates making information public?)  we know that Colonel Bruce Ploughman, a bright spark at DND, realized right away that this was trouble waiting to happen, and tried to convey that message to his colleagues.”
       
      http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/12/02/kelly-mcparland-peter-mackay-has-his-cockamamie-story-and-hes-sticking-to-it/  

  • Phil King

    “… What does ministerial accountability mean?…”

    Apparently it means never having to say you’re sorry.

    Somehow that feels misplaced? LOL

  • wilson

    ‘It looks like he lied about it, that’s how it looks’

    All these snivelling accusations from the media and the Opp MPs,
    take him to task in a meaningful way, or drop it.

    • Anonymous

      Pray tell, how?

    • neuroticdog

      How do you take to task someone who appears to have few scruples, little remorse, no evidence of insight, and a sublime sense of invulnerability? The typical response from the Harper seal colony is “if you’re not happy, then vote them out.” So they would like critics to be mute, compliant, and subservient while Harper and his seal colony commit willful atrocities to democracy for the next four years.

      Nice…

    • Anonymous

      Are you talking about penis size jokes? 

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