Stephen Harper Has Just Received his Election Kit in the Mail

And is he excited. It was leftover stock from the last Republican bid and has everything he needs to run a successful election campaign, including a fake baby so doesn't have to poke a real one.

No sweaters this time or Tim Horton coffee cups. He's going to do this right.

Also included in the kit are two cases of smelling salts should any of his human props pass out again. At least this will give the appearance of concern.

And worried about his platform? Don't be. He now owns a xeroxed copy of the 2008 Republican one. He just has to replace John McCain with Stephen Harper and Sarah Palin with Cheryl Gallant. It's in the bag.

But what's that you say? Stephen Harper doesn't want an election right now? But he loves election campaigns. It's just being Prime Minister he hates.

Harper to Ignatieff: Don't Send Canadians Back to the Polls
CBC News
June 4, 2009

Prime Minister Stephen Harper "strongly advised" Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff Wednesday against bringing down the Conservative government.

"I've had three elections in four years," Harper told reporters in Quebec City. "I think that's more than enough for the Canadian public. I don't meet anyone … of any political persuasion who wants to spend the summer fighting an election."

The country doesn't need the "political instability" an election would trigger just as it begins to emerge from a recession, Harper said.

So you can certainly count on this government being against any kind of election in the near future. I would strongly advise the Opposition of the same thing."

Harper's comments came a day after Ignatieff said his party will decide next week whether to bring down the government and plunge the country into a mid-summer election.

Ignatieff said Tuesday he doesn't want an election, while adding it's becoming more difficult to prop up the minority Conservative government.

I'm trying to make Parliament work with a government that every day is displaying more flagrant examples of incompetence," he said. "Canadians don't want an election. I don't want an election but we have a problem — a serious problem about this government's confidence."

The ballooning federal budget deficit is one of the main reasons he is considering triggering an election, Ignatieff said.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty last week disclosed that the deficit for this fiscal year will soar to more than $50 billion — $16 billion more than projected just four months earlier. Then the Toronto Dominion Bank projected that the deficit over five years would hit $168 billion.

However, Harper said Wednesday, "our deficit this year compared to … the other industrialized countries is perfectly affordable. For example, the deficit in the United States and Japan is almost four times larger than our own." (But they have more than four times our population so I guess we are in worse shape)

"In Canada, we can afford to spend today because we have managed public finances properly in the last three years when times were better." (ha ha ha ha ha )

Awaiting progress report

Ignatieff said he will decide whether to introduce a motion of non-confidence after assessing the government's second progress report on the economy, which is expected next week.

The Liberals need the help of the Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party to topple the government.

The Bloc and NDP have consistently voted against the government for the last two years, but may be less keen now that the Liberals have edged ahead in opinion polls.

Ignatieff said he will not consult the other opposition parties before deciding whether to try to topple the government.

The other issues that will determine the Liberal decision:

-The "major medical crisis" provoked by the shutdown of the isotope-producing nuclear reactor at Chalk River.

-The government's refusal to adopt equal access to employment insurance across the country.

-The fact that only six per cent of infrastructure funds have actually started flowing.

Harper was in the Quebec capital to announce a federal collaboration with the National Optical Institute to finance its research projects, and help its research partners to better position themselves to access international markets.

We really need to get this government out. We have no more confidence in their abilities than we did in December. In fact, considerably less. Harper knows he can't win another election, so is just putting in time. If he loses he will replaced as party leader, so it's a win, win for us. I'm game if Ignatieff is.

I JUST WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!!

God Save the Queen's Silver. The Conservatives are Having a Lawn Sale

Everything must go. Low, low prices. No reasonable (or even unreasonable) offer refused. You like silver, we've got silver. Got a hankering to own a leaky nuclear reactor? We've got that too.

Buildings, farm land and even politicians. Everything is for sale. So get here early before all the good stuff is gone.

(This message has been brought to you by the Conservative Party of Canada)

Feds trying to recover royal silver

The federal government is changing its procedures after heritage silver and china items from Rideau Hall and Buckingham Palace were sold off for a fraction of their worth, Heritage Minister James Moore said yesterday.

Speaking on his way out of question period, Moore said he wants to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"We're going to change the process so that museums in the country will have the ability to have first right of refusal for these kinds of items so that this kind of thing doesn't happen in the future." (How can they refuse silver that doesn't belong to us)

Officials have been ordered to contact the buyers and recover the items that had sold.

Moore's comments come after Sun Media revealed that sterling silver tea pots, silver-plated cocktail sets and china cups from the governor general's residence were sold off two weeks ago for a fraction of their value on the Crown Assets Distribution website, which is usually used to offload surplus filing cabinets and old computers.

Included in the sale were three ornate sterling silver flower baskets that former Rideau Hall employees say were on loan from Buckingham Palace.

While experts say their link to the royals could make the baskets worth as much as $10,000 each, the government sold all three for $532.

Yesterday, after several days of silence, the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General said it has managed to recover the majority of the items sold, including the three silver baskets.

However, officials wouldn't say how and when they were retrieved or how much was paid to get them back. Nor would they say what has yet to be recovered.

News that the government had sold off silver baskets on loan from Buckingham Palace prompted reactions ranging from anger to scorn.

Senator Serge Joyal , who has tabled a motion condemning the sale and calling for a change in the way Canada's official residences are managed, said selling off silver that was so visibly linked to the British royal family makes Canada look "like a banana republic."

NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus called on Rideau Hall to "come clean" and tell Canadians what happened.

"These were valuable cultural artifacts that were loaned to the Canadian people and then sold off at a fire sale."

Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay used the silver sale to question the government's plans to sell off other assets.

"Selling royal family assets that we don't even own, at barely 5% of what they are they are worth, is not an auspicious start."

Note to Leona Aglukkaq. Stephen Harper Will Not Save you Now

I really want to like Leona Aglukkaq, and in fact I do. When she was named the Minister of Health on October 30, 2008, she became the first Inuk in Canadian to hold a cabinet position in the federal government.

She is young, bright and clear headed. During the Swine Flu outbreak, she remained calm and cool, and handled herself extremely well.

In fact even the Liberal health critic, Keith Martin, said that Aglukkaq was doing a "terrific job," and he especially liked how she phoned all opposition critics to build consensus on the swine flu issue.

However, this new crisis could get her sucked into a negative response on the isotope shortage, being orchestrated by Lisa Raitt and Stephen Harper. Her name is now appearing in the press on most stories dealing with the situation, and critics are no longer kind to this "rookie" MP.

This is a shame. The Tories finally have a true rising star, but instead are throwing in their lot with a woman who has already proven that she can't be trusted.

Whether Ms Aglukkaq can come out of this unscathed, is anyone's guess, but her boss sure isn't coming to her rescue. Will she be as expendible as Jasmine Macdonnell? I sure hope not.

Two weeks ago:

'Patients will suffer' from Chalk River shutdown: medical imaging industry
4 out of 5 medical isotope reactors in the world currently out of service
May 19, 2009

CBC News

Patients in North America will face delays in medical treatment as a result of the month-long shutdown of an Ontario nuclear reactor that supplies medical isotopes, says a spokesman for the medical imaging industry. The shutdown is occurring at a time when three out of four other reactors in the world that produce the isotopes are also off-line.
"Lots of diagnostic examinations will not be able to be done during the next week," Jean-Pierre Cabocel, general manager of the Association of Imaging Producers and Equipment Suppliers, said on Tuesday.

Treatments that rely on diagnosis through imaging will not go ahead, he added.

"Patients will suffer."

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) announced Monday that its Chalk River reactor, located about 185 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, will remain out of service for more than a month due to a leak at the base of the reactor vessel.

The agency noticed the heavy water leak on Friday, a day after the reactor was shut down due to a power outage in eastern Ontario and western Quebec. The leak, which also released a small amount of radioactive tritium, was traced to a corroded outer wall of the reactor vessel.

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said in a statement Tuesday that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission assured her the heavy water leak poses no health and safety risk "and that AECL's actions are in keeping with a strong safety culture."

Due to the shutdown, AECL said it will be unable to meet its production requirements for medical isotopes starting this coming Saturday.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said in a statement that the federal government has been talking to the provinces and health-care providers and encouraging them to maximize the supply of medical isotopes available through measures such as modifying patient scheduling and triaging.

Isotopes have short shelf life so this was very good advice from the health minister.

MEDICAL ISOTOPES: Reactor closed indefinite period
Greg Weston

Sun Media

National Affairs Column
May 28, 2009

OTTAWA -- Canada's only medical isotope reactor will be out of service for the rest of the year and possibly forever, leaving thousands of desperate cancer and heart patients across the country with a shortage of nuclear scans and treatments.

Of the remaining two, the one in South Africa is a relatively small producer, while the Dutch reactor that supplies 30% of the world market is being taken out of service for maintenance in July. Federal officials confirmed yesterday they've been unable to secure an alternative supply.

Isotope distributors are warning of shortages even in Alberta and other areas of the West supplied by the Dutch reactor still in operation. A five-week shutdown of the Chalk River facility in 2007 for safety reasons prompted the Conservative government to order it back into service, claiming cancer and heart patients would have died without immediate access to nuclear scans and treatments.

This time, the situation is far more dire, yet federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has been all but silent on the crisis.

Patients put at risk
By Greg Weston

Sun Media

May 31, 2009

Federal health minister Aglukkaq, for one, has been all but invisible, presumably so she won't have to explain how little her government has done to prepare for another isotope crisis since the last one in 2007.

Health minister silent as isotope crisis deepens

It was the early morning hours of May 15 when the alarm systems at the 52-year-old Chalk River nuclear reactor began signalling a possible radioactive leak.

In an internal memo that afternoon, officials at the Ontario facility said they anticipated no lasting disruption in the reactor's production of critical medical isotopes used in cancer treatments and diagnostic scans.

That would quickly change.

At 8:13 p. m. on May 18, the federal agency that operates the reactor, Atomic Energy of Canada, issued an urgent advisory to federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and other high-ranking government officials.

"Given the high probability of the current outage continuing for more than a month, the threat to isotope production is set at the highest level, Red."

Before the leak, an estimated 4,000 Canadian cancer and heart patients a day were relying on the Chalk River isotopes for radioactive scans and treatments.

Without it, Canadian hospitals and clinics are expected to be down to a fraction of their normal isotope supply this week.

The result is what nuclear medicine specialists are calling a health "catastrophe."

The Chalk River reactor is now expected to be out of commission for the rest of this year, if not forever.

That makes the current situation a far worse health disaster than the 2007 shutdown the same Conservative government called a "national and international medical crisis."

In that case, the government went to the extreme of firing the country's nuclear regulator, Linda Keen, after she ordered the Chalk River reactor shut down for a matter of weeks for safety reasons.

After legislating the reactor back into service for isotope production, Gary Lunn, who was natural resources minister at the time, told a Commons committee: "If we had not acted, people would have died."

If anyone in government is worried about cancer and heart patients dying this time, you'd never know it.

On the contrary, Stephen Harper's government has been doing everything possible to mask the growing health emergency.

Federal health minister Aglukkaq, for one, has been all but invisible, presumably so she won't have to explain how little her government has done to prepare for another isotope crisis since the last one in 2007.

Chalk River is the largest of only five isotope reactors in the world, all of which are more than 40 years old and in regular need of repair.

One might have thought that after the scare two years ago, the Harper government would have ensured back-up supply agreements with other producers in Europe and Africa.

Instead, senior officials tell us the government "completely dropped the ball."

Almost a week after the latest reactor shutdown started, we asked Aglukkaq's office what the minister and her federal health department had done to address the current crisis.

As a reply, we received a memo from another minister stating that Aglukkaq "spoke with her counterpart in the U. S. to communicate the urgency of the situation to our neighbours to the south."

Since the U. S. has no isotope production of its own, the shutdown of our leaky Canadian reactor has curtailed about half of all nuclear scans in America.

It was indeed an urgent message for the U. S., but zero help to cancer patients in this country.

As Canadian hospitals were bracing for the looming disaster last week, Aglukkaq was finally in the news -- cheering the Governor General's controversial snack of raw seal's heart.
It's not all the health minister's fault she is being largely decorative.

Like everything in Harper's administration, the isotope crisis and all government communications about it are being managed by the prime minister's spin machine.

The strategy is clear: Keep the media and public attention focused on the woes at Atomic Energy and its leaky reactor, and away from the far more politically damaging health consequences of the resulting isotope shortage.

All media questions are directed to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt who is responsible for Atomic Energy, while Aglukkaq and officials at Health Canada are effectively gagged.

As part of the smokescreen, Raitt held a press conference last week to announce the planned privatization of Atomic Energy.

The timing of the For Sale sign on the federal nuclear agency in the midst of the medical isotope crisis, of course, was not at all coincidental.

If you can't stand the heat, sell the kitchen.

A press release issued at Raitt's sideshow quotes health minister Aglukkaq -- not in attendance, of course -- acknowledging "the hard work of health professionals, and provincial and territorial governments across Canada who are on the front lines of the current isotope shortage."

Thankfully, someone is.

The Isotope Crisis Reveals More Conservative Deceit

The Canadian public is being lied to again by our government. This time it is over isotopes and the nuclear plant at Chalk River, and involves the Prime Minister and two members of his cabinet, who have not only kept vital information from the House of Commons, but also from us.

How can we trust anything they say?

Barely a week ago, they told us that everything was fine and that there was no crisis. Then we learn that Lisa Raitt left a top secret file behind at a media outlet, which revealed many contradictions, meaning that everything wasn't fine. In fact, everything was a mess.

Don't worry, be happy. I think not.

Chalk River crisis? What crisis?
Don Martin,
Canwest News
May 26, 2009

OTTAWA -- Perhaps Canada's current minister in charge of nuclear heavy water leaks, production shutdowns and radioactive medical fallout isn't as rabidly excitable as the one who presided over the last idling of the ailing Chalk River power plant.

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt deploys her natural Cape Breton serenity when confronting the indefinite shutdown of the world's most important isotope-production plant, despite the imminent spectre of cancer patients racked up and backed up waiting for increasingly scarce diagnostic imaging material.

When confronted by predictions of medical mayhem from her opponents in the House of Commons, Raitt's words translate roughly into: "Crisis? What crisis?" as she points to her "five-point plan" for handling this sort of isotope supply interruption.

This grand plan is actually a one-page ministerial statement that, among other modest moves, pledges to "ensure that Canada plays a leadership role in the planned discussions" in Paris over security of isotope supply.

She almost makes it sound as if other sources of isotopes or medical alternatives to Chalk River are an eBay order away and, to be fair, whispers say she will announce a long-term isotope supply contract on Thursday.

Still, it's all quite the contrast to the hyperkinetic Gary Lunn she replaced, who fired Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission chair Linda Keen in an early 2008 huff for refusing to kick-start the plant on his command because he was convinced the continued shutdown could spill blood on his political hands.

He whipped Parliament into a frenzy just 17 months ago and secured unanimous all-party approval to over-ride Keen's safety concerns in the public's interest and kick-start plant operations.

It wasn't just Lunn sounding the alarm.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper cautioned in 2007 that this particular reactor's shutdown would "jeopardize the health and safety and lives of tens of thousands of Canadians," yet he has yet to respond to the current crisis in the Commons.

Former health minister Tony Clement warned "every day counts in this situation. Two or three days works out to something like 210,000 procedures worldwide."

Yet the current health minister spent Tuesday banning flavoured tobacco product and discussing Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean's symbolic dining on a raw seat heart.

This oddly muted response confuses Keen, who returned to Parliament Hill for media interviews on Tuesday for the first time since her firing.

She rates this shutdown as much, much worse than the safety compliance concerns she raised over a pair of disconnected pumps.

With new spills being noted regularly and reluctantly released by the plant's Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. owners, Chalk River has become the most notorious leaky ship in Canada's nuclear power fleet.

That's why she's gobsmacked by missing signs of urgency in coping with a crisis the Canadian Medical Association predicts will soon impact 30,000 patients per week in Canada with another 400,000 patients in the United States cut off from precious isotopes.

As someone fired for being the catalyst of a medical crisis in 2007 only to witness an almost nonchalant government response to a far more dire situation brings a wry smile to her face. "The irony is complete."

It's not only the government shrugging off this ugly scenario. Despite experts calling it a ‘catastrophe in the making,' the Chalk River shutdown has rated just three questions in the House of Commons this week.

If the Conservative blueprint for coping with a sick nuclear plant that has immense global medical significance is a single sheet of paper, the politics of this issue will go radioactive and the public reaction will go nuclear even faster than the economic meltdown.

Leaks at a nuclear plant? What's the problem? Sure you'll glow in the dark, but just think of the money you'll save on batteries. Greg Weston also weighs in.

Minister's slip reveals deceit
By: Greg Weston
London Free Press
June 4, 2009

While Canada's broken-down medical isotope reactor is no longer producing a drop of anything of value to cancer patients, it is certainly generating ample political baloney from the Conservative government.

The 52-year-old Chalk River reactor that ordinarily produces up to half the world's supply of medical isotopes for cancer scans has been shut down indefinitely after it sprang a radioactive leak May 14.

Now the rusting relic is the subject of a different kind of leak -- an entire binder of sensitive government documents on the reactor and the federal agency that runs it, Atomic Energy of Canada.

The internal briefing notes for Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt were accidentally left behind at CTV's studios after a recent interview with her on the Chalk River mess and resulting medical isotope shortage.

When the network finally aired the lost-docs story, Raitt says she tendered her resignation to the prime minister, but he refused to accept it.

Instead, the axe dropped on Raitt's 26-year-old press secretary Jasmine Macdonnell, one of the brightest young lights on Parliament Hill.

As one insider said: "Someone had to take the fall."

The opposition parties, of course, wanted that somebody to be Raitt.

After all, they argued, Maxime Bernier was sacked from cabinet last year for leaving classified documents at his girlfriend's pad.

As Stephen Harper said back then: "Ministers are always responsible for the protection of classified documents. The minister (Bernier) admitted his mistake in this matter and resigned his post."

At a press conference yesterday, Harper said the difference between the two cases is "personal responsibility" -- Bernier lost documents all on his own, while Raitt could point a finger at staff.

Or not. More likely, Bernier was sacked from cabinet because his sexploits with former biker chick Julie Couillard had obscured his judgment and made him a political disaster waiting to happen. The lost documents were just the final excuse for an execution.

Raitt is exactly the opposite -- smart, experienced, politically astute, an excellent communicator, a female from seat-rich Ontario, and generally one of Harper's stronger assets in cabinet.

In short, she is worth taking a flak attack over lost documents.

Further proof this is a government that doesn't let the truth get in the way of public opinion is to be found in the contents of Raitt's lost briefing book.

For instance, taxpayers learn for the first time that the Harper government has pumped a staggering $1.7 billion into Atomic Energy just in the past three years -- most of it up in smoke if the Chalk River reactor remains beyond repair.

Even if the reactor had remained working, Raitt's briefing documents say Canadian taxpayers would have had to shell out $72 million this year to produce medical isotopes, 90% of which go to U.S. hospitals.

The documents openly admit the financial truth about Chalk River was deliberately hidden in the last federal budget.

But nowhere have Harper and his ministers been caught tripping over their outstretched noses more than in their handling of the growing medical isotope crisis caused by the Chalk River shutdown.

Sixteen months ago, the Harper government ordered the reactor restarted after a shutdown for safety reasons, saying cancer and heart patients would die without an immediate isotope supply.

At that time, the shutdown lasted four weeks and the world's other four isotope reactors were operating.

This time, the situation is far worse -- Chalk River is out of order indefinitely and two of the other reactors are also down.

Yet, Raitt testified at a Commons committee this week there is nothing to panic about. Either the Harper government lied to Canadians 16 months ago, or it is lying today. Either way, government deceit is a far bigger issue than lost documents.

Canada For Sale and Has Lisa Raitt Got a Deal For You

Pssst...wanna buy a nuclear plant, real cheap? Lisa's got one for sale. What can she do to put you into this time bomb today?

AECL's viable assets to be sold
Taxpayers will be on hook for liabilities and toxic assets.

by Ish Theilheimer

OTTAWA,

June 1, 2009

The Harper government has announced its intention to sell of the most profitable and successful parts of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) at "fire sale" prices while retaining control of the Crown corporation's toxic assets and liabilities.

The government plans to divide the company in two. Chalk River Nuclear Laboratory, which currently employs 2,900 people, will be managed privately with no requirement that it continue manufacturing medical isotopes at the site. Currently, isotope production has stopped due to repeated problems at the plant.

Reporters and critics questioned the timing of the announcement, amidst alarm over the sudden cut-off of isotope production. In December, 2007, when the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission ordered the Chalk River reactor that produces the isotopes be shut down for repairs, the government recalled Parliament, citing the life-and-death nature of the situation. Stephen Harper even fired the Commission's chair, Linda Keen, over this.

On Thursday, at the privatization announcement, NDP natural resources critic Nathan Cullen pointed to the government's efforts to pass legislation shielding the nuclear industry from liability in case of accidents as proof of its intention to sell off the industry. He said it is poor management to sell off the company's best assets and proprietary research in a poor market while keeping the most risky assets in the public domain.

"
They've just had a budget where we've seen a bunch of sales of Crown assets they weren't going to name. Now we're seeing what's going to be sold off. And to sell it off when prices are incredibly low is not sound fiscal management. Mr Flaherty's credibility with Canadians for managing the economy through this recession is out the window, and the growing concern is 'What next? What else is up for sale?'"

He said Canadian taxpayers will be "on the hook for the majority of costs in the event of a nuclear accident," because of proposed legislation "to limit liability in Canada in the event of a nuclear accident." In the US, he said, nuclear companies have to pay into a $10 billion pool for liabilities.

Natural resources minister Lisa Raitt said the newly-privatized company would be regulated by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, "which does have an independent view of the entire nuclear industry in Canada and will be managing it regardless of the restructuring here."

When asked by Straight Goods News "Can you call it independent when you're able to politically fire and hire chairs of the Commission, as happened in the case of Linda Keen?," Raitt said, "The CNSC absolutely has its own mandate and it continues to regulate the industry for its health, safety and security of Canadians."

Lisa Raitt Digs For Gold in Taxpayers Wallet

Natural Resources minister, Lisa Raitt might be incompetent. She might even be thin skinned. But man can she party.

Don't expect Ms. Raitt to travel economy. This gal is first class all the way, and has no problem billing taxpayers for her extravagances, even during an economic crisis.

Raitt spent $80k on travel and hospitality in previous job
By Glen McGregor,
The Ottawa Citizen
April 2, 2009

OTTAWA — Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt spent nearly $80,000 on travel and hospitality during her last two years as head of the Toronto Port Authority before leaving her job to run for the Conservatives.

A summary of her expenses as president and chief executive officer of the federal agency shows she racked up $28,000 in hospitality charges in 2007 and until the fall of 2008. In the same period, she spent an additional $51,000 on travel, with trips to Washington, D.C., Newark, New Jersey, and two visits to London, England, among other destinations. Raitt’s expenses were tabled in the House of Commons this week in response to an order paper question from Toronto NDP MP Olivia Chow.

“There is no reason why a Crown corporation, in tough economic times, would spend that much money traveling,” Chow said Thursday. “It just does not show leadership using taxpayer’s money for this kind of expensive travel.”

She said Raitt shouldn’t have been taking “junkets” when the Port Authority was running a deficit.

With a 2007 operating budget of about $17 million, the Port Authority is a relatively small shared-governance corporation, with the City of Toronto and the province represented on its board. It is responsible for a shipping terminal, a marina and the Toronto City Centre Airport.

According to its 2007 financial statement, the Port Authority reported an operating loss of nearly $1.9 million, after losing $6 million the year before.

Raitt earned a salary of $185,000 plus $19,000 in other benefits in 2007, the statement shows.

Asked for comment, a spokesperson in Raitt’s ministerial office emailed the following: “As the independent audit committee of the Toronto Port Authority has previously stated, these approved expenses are typical for a business of its size and complexity.”

Earlier this year, the board’s audit committee said it was clarifying its policy on hospitality expense but said there was nothing unusual in the expenses it reviewed. It did not publicly release the expense reports.

Board chairman Mark McQueen said in an email that Raitt’s $50,000 in expenses on 40 trips over two years was “not atypical.” The 2008 trip to London, he said, was to meet with insurance underwriters and saved the Port Authority $20,000 but cost less than $4,000.
“That’s a good return on investment.”

The records tabled this week show that Raitt, in addition to the 2008 trip, also spent another $3,622 traveling to London in February 2007.

Some of her trips within Canada were the most expensive. She spent $2,991 on a trip to Ottawa the same month she visited London last year, $3,012 to go to Montreal and $4,234 to visit Saint John, New Brunswick.

Her hospitality bills varied from month to month, with the highest of $3,817 in January 2008.

“The more distant North American trips involve various domestic and continental Port Associations, which meet in different cities on a rotating basis,” McQueen wrote. “[The] $30,000 for hospitality over two years doesn’t surprise me, given the wide variety of roles that the CEO plays in receiving dignitaries and business development.”

McQueen said that while the Port Authority always followed its purchasing policy, the clarification “ensured that no hospitality expenses, however small, can be recovered without the approval of the immediate supervisor.”

When Riatt was sworn into the Harper cabinet last October, the Citizen filed an Access to Information Act request with the Port Authority for all her expense claims dating back to 2002.

The agency requested several extensions on the time allowed to respond, then said retrieving the “extensive” records requested would require substantial work. The agency asked for payment of $2,070 to produce the records.

In the October election, Riatt upset Conservative-turned-Liberal incumbent Garth Turner in Halton, Ontario.

Because she is now a cabinet minister, all of Raitt’s travel and hospitality claims are posted on her department’s website. Those records show that in the first five months on the job, she ran up $34,700 in travel expenses.

At this rate she may single handedly break the bank, even without Jim Flaherty's performance (or lack thereof).

John Baird Scoffs at Accountability and Appoints Friends

Despite all the blather about accountability, the Harper government clearly intends that the rules only apply to the opposition parties, while themselves are guilty of cronyism and nepotism in almost every department, and with almost every MP.

Guy Lauzon engineered a spot for his buddy, Dick Aubry. "August 1, 2008 - The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today announced the appointment of Mr. Richard Aubry to the board of directors of the National Capital Commission (NCC) for a term of four years."

Dick Aubry was the publisher of the Seaway News, that printed so many photo-ops of the Cornwall MP that some people are now calling the paper the 'Guy Lauzon rag'.

Jim Flaherty gave an untendered contract to a former Mike Harris speech writer and Jim Prentice replaced seasoned land treaty agents with his friends, including his former law partner, when he was minister of Indian Affairs. Tom Lukiwsdki got his buddy with the Saskatchewan Party, Elwin Hermanson, the top job at the Canadian Grain Commission. The list goes on.

However, when the Parliamentary crisis was in full swing and the government shut down, John Baird hastily appointed a few friends that were yet to cash in, adding new positions to the Toronto Port Authority to accommodate them.

Harper Govt's new Toronto Port Authority Appointees

This is a story that slipped through with out much notice but on December 22nd two new board members were announced:

Jeremy Adams - a director of government relations for a tobacco company and a past-president of his university's alumni association, appointed January, 2009 by Transport Minister John Baird. He is a long-time Conservative Party member, having worked for Ontario minister Elizabeth Witmer, former Ontario premier Mike Harris and former provincial and current (as of 2009) federal finance minister Jim Flaherty.

Sean L. Morley - A partner in the Business Law section of the Fasken Martineau law firm, appointed December 23, 2008 by Transport Minister Baird. He is a long-time Conservative Party member, and has worked in the past for former provincial and current (as of 2009) federal finance minister Jim Flaherty.

So much for accountability.

Conservative Partisan Appointed to Toronto Port Authority

For Immediate Release

January 20, 2009 - Toronto

The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure John Baird announced Monday the appointment of a former Conservative party Campaign Manager to the Toronto Port Authority’s board of Directors.

The Port Authority which seems to serve as a continued shelter for Conservative Party insiders was quietly expanded last month without the consultation of the municipal or provincial partners.

Olivia Chow, Critic for Greater Toronto Area issues wrote the minister last December to protest the undemocratic expansion.

“Today it became abundantly clear the expansion was solely intended to accommodate the political agenda of the Conservative Party of Canada and not to serve the interests of all stakeholders close to the issue” said, Olivia Chow. “The Toronto Port Authority is supposed to be governed by a tripartite agreement which Minister Baird unilaterally ignored with this appointment.”

December 5, 2008

Dear Minister Baird,

Today your government locked up the House of Commons and prevented all elected Members of Parliament from tackling the economic crisis ahead of us. I was astounded to learn that on this same day you are proceeding by regulation to change the Toronto Port Authority’s Letter of Patent in order to add two extra members. This is being done without consulting your municipal and provincial partners, even though the Toronto Port Authority is governed by a tripartite agreement.

By unilaterally appointing two extra members, you have seized control of the Board of Directors in a most undemocratic fashion.

I urge you not to proceed.