Unfortunately, Stephen Harper's speech has not been widely publicized; yet, it is excellent. Read it and see for yourself. Here is an excerpt, to tempt you.
The 1995 budget put forward four priorities.
The very first priority was to:
Reform government programs and procedures to eliminate waste and abuse and ensure value for the taxpayer’s dollar.
This promise was repeated in his 1996 budget speech:
If there is one area where we must never let up, it is the effort to root out waste and inefficiency.
And in his 1998 budget speech:
The battle to root out waste and inefficiency can never end.
Now, allow me to rephrase all of that:
The year in which the Liberals created the Sponsorship Program was also the year in which the current Prime Minister first vowed to root out waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars. [emphasis mine]
Every protestation of innocence concerning the Sponsorship Scandal is lovingly repeated by our Liberal Publicity Organ -- aka the CBC -- as are the words of Liberal MPs who are spinning the idea that the investigation has gone far enough -- that there were only a few bad guys involved and they will be taken care of -- later -- so let's get back to business as usual. The CBC is helping the Liberals to spin the idea that Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is simply trying to use this for the upcoming election. I beg to differ; Canadians want the Public Accounts Committee and other necessary investigations to go forward and find the rot in every nook and cranny of the government and the crown corporations. The Liberal government has lost the confidence of a large segment of the populous -- and for good reasons, it appears. Carry on!
I just checked and I love Andrew Coyne's new site. He has so much information that I feel I might as well quit. He's better and better all the time -- his work always worth perusal.
