as usual, the tories are clueless, or at least pretending to be. the issue here isn't the independence of the board. that's just typical right-wing bloviating. the problem here is the independence of the board. if we had less independence, we would have more oversight, and what's happening would be essentially impossible.
the whole point of setting up an independent advisory board like this is so that you can put a lobbyist on it. if you left the process inside of government, you'd have to put a public servant in charge that is either elected or promoted. "independence" means removing oversight and making corruption easier.
it's not even the money that's the problem, it's the fact that they're selling off the seat at the table. what concerns me is the consequences of that influence peddling. when you put a lawyer on an environmental board, they themselves are doing the work of their clients. and, you don't have to read the article to know who that would be.
you can argue this is how government works, and i'm actually going to agree with you to an extent. but, there's lines. they're doing this for the fucking supreme court. and, that must be fought against.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/environmental-assessment-panel-liberal-donors-1.3726695
in order to minimize corruption, the board should be run by career civil servants. says who? pierre elliot trudeau.
that was the major thrust of his government, and it's been undone in months by his idiot son.
you cannot blame a fool for being a fool. i again call on the party to send him on vacation...
the system of government that pierre trudeau set up in canada was designed explicitly to prevent this from happening. it was a kind of a twist on the marxist concept of the state withering away. and, so when justin trudeau talks about removing the partisanship from government, there is some ideological continuity - in theory. it's just that in the name of non-partisanship, justin trudeau is doing exactly what his father tried to prevent from happening.
think about it for a second. what is less partisan: the civil service, which exists independent of parliament, or an "independent advisory board" that is picked by the prime minister?
but, again, i don't want to throw orwell at you. i really don't. ok - maybe somewhere in his staff of advisers, there's somebody with a warped sense of humour and a lot of bad intentions. but, i think his intentions are actually extremely pure. i really don't think he's corrupt. i just think he's really fucking stupid.
what pierre trudeau imagined was that by this point in time we would have a civil service that was dominant in society and operated largely independently from parliamentary oversight, with it's primary check on power coming from the judiciary. that would reduce the parliament to a kind of minarchist distraction, responsible for setting the direction of policy but not the policy itself.
he wanted a government run by social scientists, not politicians. again: it's basically marxist in concept. and, ironically, what we're seeing from his son is exactly the reason why...
if you listen to justin, you can hear that he sat at the dinner table and listened to his dad talk quite a bit. the same broad themes are present. it's just that he demonstrates essentially no understanding of what he's saying - and his policies uphold the accusation.
tersely: if you set up an "independent body" to overrule the civil service, which is actually already independent of parliament by design, then what you are doing is abolishing the independence of the decision making process and concentrating power in the pmo.
what "independent" means in context is "independent of the independent body", which by definition means dependent on the party.
it's literally a direct undoing of his father's legacy. but, i really think it's legitimately unintentional.
what he knows are the buzz words. he doesn't know the details. and, apparently, neither do his advisers.
that's not justin, it's his little brother michel.
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2014/12/margaret-trudeau-fidel-castro.jpg?quality=65&strip=all
that's the elder trudeau.
it's not hyperbole. trudeauism is legitimately a branch of marxism. it's a mixed economy. and, it seeks to have the state wither away on the path to communism.
it was very popular, here. and i'm an advocate of it as an excellent compromise.
it's sad to see what's happening. but, there's no reason to think it's irreversible.
https://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/pierre-trudeau-fidel-castro.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=940&h=705
