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A Decade of Liberal Boondoggles I read the article "Stability is needed in the House of Commons" in the May 26, 2005 issue of the Nipawin Journal. The question was asked "Why not let the present administration ride out its term of office and see what they can do?" The Liberals with Paul Martin have exhibited poor government practices; we know what they can do. Before continuing as leaders of Canada, the Liberal government should allow Canadians to have a vote of confidence on the govt.'s past performances. The Liberals have evolved the practice of denial to a new level, even completely ignoring their major blunders. View Liberal leadership as A DECADE OF LIBERAL BOONDOGGLES, such as: EH-101 HELICOPTER CANCELLATION FIASCO: Upon taking power in 1993, the Liberals killed a contract to replace the aging Sea King military helicopters. Few remember the cancellation cost taxpayers a $500 million penalty. Chretien, Martin and the Liberals persisted in denying their failure to get adequate replacements for the aging Sea King helicopters used by the navy for maritime search and rescue. The 40-year-old, accident-prone Sea King choppers are still in use. HEALTH CARE: While the Liberals portray themselves as the guardians of our national health care system, it was Martin's $25 billion cuts to health care funding when he was finance minister in the early 1990s that led to the crises in the health care system today. TAINTED BLOOD SCANDAL: Millions of dollars in federal funding was not transferred to victims; therefore many victims have died. RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL ABUSE CLAIMS: Of the $200 mil. spent on claims administration; only $38 million went to the victims. PENSION FUNDS LOST: Military veteran's and widow's of veterans lost their pension funds to the Liberal govt.. EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE FUND SCANDAL: $44 billion in excess contributions were placed in a Reserve Fund which was contrary to the federal government's own guidelines. LAX IMMIGRATION STANDARDS: The feds. can't find thousands of failed refugee claimants, some with links to terrorism and organized crime . TRANSPORTATION FUNDS LOST: Under the Liberals, our national air and rail carriers live from one crisis to crisis. Yet the federal govt. gathers billions of dollars in fuel tax revenues while investing very little into transportation infrastructure. Our roads need improvement. BUYING ADVICE: Liberals spend $6.5 billion annually on outside consultants - to buy "advice" which is largely available from within the public service 2000 FUEL REBATE: A botched $1.4 billion heating fuel rebate program doled out cash to the wrong Canadians. At that time, Minister of Finance, Paul Martin, announced the gift just before the 2000 federal election. The Auditor General later discovered that as little as 18% made its way to low income Canadians. Some rebates went to dead people, some to prisoners and students who were living at home and didn't pay heating bills. 2000 HRDC: Calling accounting problems "widespread and serious," the auditor general revealed in 2000 that $1 billion was mismanaged in job creation grants handled by Human Resources Development Canada, under minister Jane Stewart. A recreation of the paper trail later found only a few million was improperly disbursed. 2002 CHALLENGER JETS: The Liberal government spent $101 million on luxury Challenger jets deemed unnecessary by officials at the Department of National Defense. An Auditor General's report said the purchase was rushed through on the last day of the fiscal year in 2002 which broke purchasing rules. 1995-2005 GUN REGISTRY: Originally forecast to cost $2 million in 1995, the Auditor General predicted in 2003 that actual costs would escalate to $1 billion by 2004-2005. Calculations now suggest the costs have actually ballooned to $2 billion. While the gun registry makes "paper criminals" of law-abiding Canadians and tracks them, the same law does not call for tracking real criminals with firearms prohibition orders issued against them. Liberal firearms laws have done nothing in a decade to improve our revolving door justice system. COALITION FOR GUN CONTROL: The Liberal gov't secretly funds the supposedly (non-governmental organization) Coalition for Gun Control which then lobbies the federal gov't for stricter gun control laws.. 2003 RADWANSKI AFFAIR: Inadequate oversight and spending controls allowed former privacy commissioner George Radwanski to rack up thousands of tax dollars in lavish lunches and luxury travel. The auditor general also found that Radwanski and executive staff were improperly cashing out vacation, overbidding for expenses and creating a hostile work environment. 2004 SPONSORSHIP: The auditor general revealed that up to $100 million of the $250 million federal sponsorship program went to Liberal-friendly advertising firms for little or no work. The program was established to boost the national profile in Quebec after the 1995 referendum on sovereignty. However, a new figure of $355 million is from the forensic accounting firm, Kroll Lindquist Avey. This firm has looked in the past for money from such people as Saddam Hussein, the Marcos family and de-throned Panamanian strong man Manuel Noriega. It would be wise to have them look for money trails in the gun registry as well.. "GREAT BUMWAD FIASCO": The Liberal gov't bought the Weston Inc. owned toilette paper plant, an eyesore property across from the Parliament Bldgs for $36 million. It was to be the a site of a future park . The Liberal govt. then leased it back to the original owner for 25 years. BLUENOSE GRANT: A $2.3 million Bluenose grant was allocated by the Liberals but $1.9 million has been siphoned off by an ad agency. FAILURE TO COLLECT GST: A seven year failure of the Liberal govt. to collect GST resulted in fraud of over $1 billion lost through loop-holes. "MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUST": Ottawa's $5.5 million contract with Prairie Plant Systems to produce "medical marijuana" for registered users was a bust. The active ingredient was so low that the "weak" pot had few therapeutic benefits and little monetary value, yet cost tax payers over $15,000 per ounce to produce. "PRIVATE" GOVERNMENT FOUNDATIONS: The Liberal govt. stashed untold $billions in "private" gov't foundations which are hidden from public scrutiny and beyond the reach of the Auditor General and Privacy Commissioner CSL, CANADIAN STEAMSHIP LINES: Paul Martin circumvented Canadian health, labor and safety standards by re-flagging ships from his former company CSL. Martin fired the Canadian crews on his CSL ships and replaced them with cheap foreign labor. He registered his assets off-shore in Barbados to avoid paying his fair share of Canadian taxes. Also there was $161 million in federal development money paid to CSL which was "unknown" to Paul Martin. These are some reasons Canadians must tell the Liberal government and Paul Martin to stop stealing OUR tax money, call an election, and not "ride out its term in office". I would not trust Paul Martin and his gang of Liberals with my dog's used bones. Yours in Tyranny, Joe Gingrich |