Martin Should Blush over Flag Flap
By Licia Corbella
Prime Minister Paul Martin says he found it â Å“disappointingâ ? and â Å“disrespectfulâ ? the Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams would lower Canada's flag for political reasons.
Martin sure has a lot of cheek.
For what is a higher calling- using the flag to better the lot of an entire province, or using a flag to better the bottom line of the family bank account?
Martin himself has lowered Canada's flag and has defended doing so even though he did it only for crass profiteering at the expense of the country he supposedly leads and loves and to the benefit only of himself and his fabulously rich family.
By lowering the Canadian flag on seven Canada Steamship Lines tankers, Martin's family firm saved tens of millions of dollars in Canadian taxes. By hoisting up other so called flags of convenience, Martin also saved many more millions of dollars by allowing him to flout Canadian labour laws and pay his crews only a fraction of what Canadian crews would have had to be paid, and also to violate more stringent Canadian environmental laws.
That Martin didn't blush brightly last week as he condemned Williams for lowering Canada's flag surely tells us about Martin's conscious- or lack of one. His effrontery appears boundless.
Three weeks ago, Williams had ordered Maple Leaf flags to be lowered at all provincial government buildings to protest Martin reneging on a deal made during the federal election campaign that Newfoundland could keep 100 per cent of its provincial share of offshore oil revenues, without a clawback on its equalization payments.
On Monday, the flags went back up, although Williams remains unapologetic over his protest.
Essentially, Newfoundland wants to keep 47 per cent of the revenues and Ottawa would keep 53 per cent. Surely that's not asking too much?
Martin, who feared his lifelong dream of being PM was slipping away, agreed to Williams' plan during the election campaign, but reneged afterwards. It is the Martin and Liberal way.
While Williams is supported by the vast majority of Newfoundlanders, he has also been criticized by other Canadians who say it is wrong to use our flag as a political football.
Frankly, I neither condone or condemn it.
Had he lowered our flag and then trampled or burned it, that would be another story, but Williams merely put it away for a while to give a visible symbol to the level of frustration that exists in the province.
And in light of the fact that Williams was doing it for the right reasons- that being to improve the lives of his people and ultimately to strengthen our country by giving more power to the people rather than to a dictatorial prime minister elected by 39 per cent of the population and who serves the interests of only Ontario and Quebec- then sometimes the ends do justify the means.
The same can't be said for Martin, who is not alone in treating the Canadian flag as a money saver or maker.
His party has been using the Maple Leaf in a shameless way for years to fill up-if not their personal coffers- then certainly the bank accounts of friends and party supporters.
Let's look at an example:
Back in March, a former federal bureaucrat, Allan Cutler, revealed how he lost his job when he exposed false invoices and improper contracting in the $250 million Liberal government contract scandal.
Cutler, who worked directly under Chuck Guite- then the department of Public Work's director of advertising and public opinion- said he was asked to backdate contracts, give payment for work not performed and authorize deals outside the normal rules.
And perhaps the most interesting thing about Cutler's testimony before the Common's public accounts committee investigating the $100 million that went missing between 1997 and 2000, is this whole crooked scheme started in 1994, more than a year before the October 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty that came so close to destroying Canada.
The sponsorship program existed for nefarious reasons only- to funnel money into Liberal â “friendly advertising agencieswho then funnelled portions of it back into Liberal party coffers.
In short, the Liberals used the Maple Leaf flag â Å“as a leverâ ? to steal money for themselves
Licia Corbella is the editor of the Calgary Sun