Martin is *Ethically Challenged*

. . . and Paul Martin reaches into the magic hat once more, this time for Mr. Harper . . . and what do you know -- he's pulled out -- what's that? Why it's another lie.

No wonder people are cynical about politics. Perception is everything and truth is nothing.

Paul Martin and Jack Layton -- forget whether you agree with either of their politics -- have made nice to 'make this minority Parliament work'. In the Globe & Mail article they say: The Prime Minister said the new spending reflects priorities that he was already intending to implement in the future.

It doesn't matter if it's all smoke and mirrors -- they get an A+ for playing well with others.

Then there is Stephen Harper. It doesn't matter what he does now; Martin has thrown him a bone and if he doesn't take it and play nice, he will appear disagreeable and unco-operative. People will likely perceive him as putting lust for power above the working of the country.

Martin would have NDPers believe that Jack Layton's priorities are also his.
He wants them to forget that these 'priorities' ranked so high that they weren't in the budget.
He wants them to believe that he's punishing the rich corporations by withholding tax cuts when he's reaching around into another pocket and pulling out a mirror-twin rabbit to entice conservatives -- all the time knowing the lingering perception will be that Harper had a choice to prop up the government and 'make this Parliament work.'

Earlier today, Harper had a great line: "To deal with Liberal corruption, we get an NDP budget," he said. "What the Liberals don't steal, the NDP gets to spend." You can read the full story here in the Calgary Herald

Those same people who choose to see Harper as the bad guy in all this don't seem to realize that if a government falls due to a non-confidence vote, or the failure of a crucial piece of legislation -- that is democracy in action -- it proves that the government is working.

But perhaps Jack Layton is beginning to realize he's been played, today Macleans quoted him as saying about Martin: "He's either fooling around with Canadians again or it's an admission they didn't know how to count our dollars . . . It really strikes me as game-playing. He's once again trying to please absolutely everybody with promises that he's probably not going to be able to keep."

For those of you who subscribe to the NP there is a great column about cheating by Peter Battistoni. It makes you realize that when politicians become ethically bankrupt, it is critical to purge them from government.
No consequences for bad behaviour means no incentive to remain honourable.
One would hope people will act with integrity as a matter of conscience, but 12 years of no reproof might make anyone think they're untouchable.

'Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.' William Shakespeare

Cheers,
canadianna, hoping for a better Canada