REFLECTING ON GOMERY: POLITICAL SCANDALS AND THE CANADIAN MEMORY

Desmond Morton

Is the sponsorship scandal the worst in Canadian history, as the opposition howls, or is there a lack of memory of our own history? In any spoils system, as renowned historian Desmond Morton points out, what goes around comes around. Who gets the spoils usually depends on who’s in power. And from the dawn of Confederation, the spoils have started at the front door of Public Works and Government Services, the historic home of pork and patronage in Canada. “Most of our ancestors took political corruption for granted,” Morton writes, adding that “one continuing political reality of Canada is how tolerant of scandal most of us have really been.” From the Pacific Scandal of one century, to the furniture scandals of the next, a short but informative history of scandal in Canada.

Le scandale des commandites est-il le pire qu’ait connu le Canada, comme le clame l’opposition, ou avons-nous oublié une partie de notre histoire ? Dans tout système des dépouilles, rappelle l’éminent historien Desmond Morton, tout finit par se payer. Simplement, les profiteurs varient selon les titulaires du pouvoir. Dès les débuts de la Confédération, le favoritisme s’est logé à l’enseigne des ministères chargés des travaux publics et des services gouvernementaux, refuges historiques de l’électoralisme et du népotisme. « La plupart de nos ancêtres tenaient la corruption politique pour acquise », observe l’auteur, ajoutant que la tolérance au scandale de la plupart de nos concitoyens est l’une des grandes constantes de la vie politique de ce pays. D’un siècle à l’autre, voici un bref et fort instructif historique des scandales canadiens.

ife can only be understood backwards, Soren take Quebec and perhaps even Atlantic Canada out of Kierkegard, the Danish philosopher reminded us. Confederation? L Unfortunately, it has to be lived forwards. Last year, Honest answers in history, as Kierkegard warned, for example, I was constantly asked whether the sponsor- demand more patience than either the media or opposition ship scandal was the biggest in Canada’s history. By the politicians are usually willing to concede. So do substantial time Mr. Justice Gomery reports, and certainly by the time answers about how to prevent this and other scandals from the last criminal investigation has enriched its last lawyer, being the daily fare of political debate. When Harper we may be able to agree on its seniority. Or even what con- demands that the Liberal Party pay back what its minions stitutes a scandal? Would all Canadians agree that allow- have allegedly extracted from federal coffers, has he ever ing tainted blood into our transfusion system constituted thought about where the Liberals would ever find the a scandal? Or sending soldiers to war in 1915 armed with funds? Does he plan to report in detail and in timely fash- the Ross Rifle? Or refusing to admit Jewish refugees fleeing ion the funding sources of his own political party? Surely he Hitler in 1938? Will sponsorship and its cast of characters remembers the stench in Toryism that drove him to launch fade from memory like most of the scandals I have been his own parliamentary career in the ranks of Preston invited to dredge up? Or will it give sovereignists the cata- Manning’s Reform Party. lyst to vote Yes to sovereignty, as both Jean Chrétien and Future historians may also recognize the sponsorship Gilles Duceppe and possibly even Stephen Harper may scandal as Jean Chrétien’s greatest gift to the sovereignist believe? After all, what better way to give the cause. As the former prime minister explained to the Conservatives a built-in majority than by helping the Bloc Gomery Inquiry, Canada’s profile in Quebec had virtually

14 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN 2005 Reflecting on Gomery: political scandals and the Canadian memory vanished as a result of the Mulroney er than the original claims of alleged mission amassed plenty of evidence of government’s privatizations and trans- misspending by Human Resources and police break-ins, unauthorized wire- fer of powers over immigration to the Development Canada. The sordid taps of MPs, and even a barn-burning, Quebec government. By trashing the parade of evasive and forgetful execu- but no minister ever resigned. constitutional expectations that tives and disgruntled Liberal opera- National security is an easy alibi when Mulroney had raised to persuade tives before the cameras in Judge governments break the law, and the Quebecers to accept Pierre Trudeau’s Gomery’s hearing room have provided argument has had an especially heavy Constitution “with honour and enthu- a vast Quebec audience with months workout on both sides of the Canada- siasm,” the rest of Canada sent sover- of delicious indignation and righteous- US border since 9/11.

Both Macdonald and Allan knew that Canadian elections t is not new. After Sir were not won by prayers but by cash. Driven by poverty, I John A. Macdonald’s partner in Confederation, opportunism and greed, many voters were “loose fish” or Sir George-Étienne Cartier, “shaky fellows,” who unashamedly sold their votes for money, foolishly promised dele- a mickey or a paycheque. Party organizers took a cut, just like gates from British Columbia some of Gomery’s witnesses. A Senate seat was a reward for a railway from Montreal to the Pacific, when they successful money collectors. Not only was it a royal flush as a might easily have settled for patronage benefit, the salary would keep collectors from a wagon road through the skimming more than a little for themselves. Rockies, getting the impos- sibly expensive project eignty support to a record 60 percent, ness. In pubs and kitchens across completed became a matter of nation- guaranteed the Parti Québécois anoth- Quebec, sovereignists have waxed al urgency. When Montreal’s Sir Hugh er turn in power in 1994, and made the indignant that their federal taxes fund- Allan apparently found the capital for second referendum fight in 1995 much ed the scoundrels whose tawdry the Pacific Railway, was it Cartier’s tougher for the province’s demoralized schemes undermined their dreams of a folly, the young Dominion’s existence, federalists. When the federalists won Quebec independent of the clowns or merely the Tory party that was by only a whisker, editorial writers who run the federal government. saved? Thanks to the late Pierre denounced Chrétien for inaction. The Chrétien’s explanation for the Berton, most living Canadians know prime minister responded by peeling sponsorship scandal has a long associ- which version they have been taught. $250 million from a shrunken federal ation with the dirty deeds in Canadian Still, Sir John A. had to get himself re- budget, handed it to Alfonso Gagliano, public life. Making the dangerously elected. The fact that Allan and a syn- his lead Quebec minister, and told him false analogy that politics is war, par- dicate of American backers stood to to get cracking. As minister of Ottawa’s ticularly when conducted against peo- make a lot of money was no voter’s most patronage-friendly department, ple with troublesome ideas, isn’t business until somebody burgled the Public Works, Gagliano turned instinc- anything fair? Aren’t those who office of Allan’s solicitor, J.J. Abbott. tively to Chuck Guité, a hold-over from protest, like Auditor General Sheila Among the loot was a telegram to the end of the Mulroney era. Guité Fraser or Mr. Justice Gomery, doing the Allan from Macdonald that most his- knew whom to call and what motivat- enemy’s work? In Honest Politics, their torians can recite from memory: “I ed the seemingly unsavoury gang book on Canadian political corrup- must have another ten thousand. Will whose wealth would come from under- tion, Ian Greene and David be the last time of calling; do not fail mining the sovereignist dream. As one Shugarman, two specialists in political me; answer today.” Nestled beside it of them, Gilles-André Gosselin ethics at York University, refer to the was Allan’s prompt agreement. explained to Mr. Justice Gomery, he “dirty hands” argument. Yes, sponsor- Both Macdonald and Allan knew would have lost two-thirds of his staff ship might seem a bizarre way of that Canadian elections were not won if they had ever figured out that he had spending taxpayers’ dollars, but didn’t by prayers but by cash. Driven by hired them out to change Canada’s those same taxpayers want something poverty, opportunism and greed, image in Quebec. done to counter Quebec separatists? many voters were “loose fish” or Greene and Shugarman recall another “shaky fellows,” who unashamedly quarter-billion dollars buys a lot classic “dirty hands” example, the sold their votes for money, a mickey or A of change, though it is only a series of criminal acts attributed to the a paycheque. Party organizers took a quarter of the billion dollars that RCMP Security Services after they had cut, just like some of Gomery’s wit- allegedly vanished into the Liberals’ failed to foresee or forestall the nesses. A Senate seat was a reward for gun registry program, and even small- October Crisis of 1970. A royal com- successful money collectors. Not only

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was it a royal flush as a patronage ben- obvious reason was provincial prosperi- that corruption would be an issue, efit, the salary would keep collectors ty. If Santa Claus is generous to every- after several Tory ministers had been from skimming more than a little for one, who cares if he keeps a few gifts tarred with insider deals that allegedly themselves. under the seat of his sleigh? On the extended to organized crime. John Most of our ancestors took politi- other hand, appointing the austere Ted Wintermeyer, the austere Liberal cal corruption for granted. Hughes to preside over B.C. political leader, thought so. So might the NDP, “Responsible Government,” the great ethics soon turned out to be the death whose leader, Donald C. MacDonald, symbol of our liberation from bossy of Social Credit in the province. had tagged Tory after Tory at Queen’s British governors is a lot easier to My own baptism in politics, the Park. Instead, after they read the few understand if you realize that the real 1963 Ontario election, remains an polls their party could afford, NDP issue was who gave out government object lesson. Outsiders might imagine managers banned even a word on the jobs in pre-Confederation Canada, appointed governors and their pals or real live elected Canadian politicians. Aren’t we raised to cheer for the Canadians and their solemn right to fill the Post Office with their dim-bulb relatives instead of those of the Family Compact or the Chateau Clique? It also explains why the British view of Canada’s freedom struggle often seems so huffy and self-righteous. How dare they protect us from our traditional duty to hand over our taxes to self- regarding fixers?

ne continuing political reality of O Canada is how tolerant of scandal most of us have really been. Yes, in 1991 British Columbians dumped Social Credit after a torrent of conflict-of- interest charges, and Saskatchewan vot- ers rid themselves of Grant Devine’s after learning how every Tory MLA had agreed to divert public funds to their own pockets. Two years later, the stink of sleaze helped cut Canada’s historic Progressive Conservative party to a mere two seats in Parliament. In all three cases, acute economic problems are as good an explanation as an electorate with a conscience. So does the advent of ethics commissioners, conflict-of- interest codes and other long-sought and righteous reforms that provide political opponents and scandal-hounds with bench marks and loads of material to fling as charges. B.C. still holds the record as the only regime in the Commonwealth to send a serving min-

ister to jail for corruption, though his J.W. Bengough from Montreal Gazette archives party kept his seat at the next election. So has Ralph Klein, through a succes- In this famous political cartoon by J.W. Bengough, Sir John A. Macdonald cheerfully admits taking the famous $10,000 from Sir Hugh Allan, financier of the Canadian Pacific sion of personal scandals that would Railway, for his re-election campaign. “Both Macdonald and Allan knew that elections have terminated a lesser figure. One were not won by prayers, but by cash,” writes Desmond Morton.

16 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN 2005 Reflecting on Gomery: political scandals and the Canadian memory subject. MacDonald’s reward, for a pied by the Royal York) whenever syndicate that quadrupled the cost of month of ill-concealed frustration, was Macdonald’s ministers were in town. Canada’s original Parliament Buildings a two-seat boost in support. True, Macdonald showed more devo- in Ottawa. One of McGreevy’s rewards Wintermeyer was personally driven tion to political purity. His customs was a lovely house in Quebec, built in from public life for being so mean and minister, the future prime minister the same yellow sandstone of the orig- negative. Canadians don’t like corrup- Mackenzie Bowell, Macdonald praised inal Centre Block. Next, Tom became tion or seeing their taxes squandered, as being too stupid to be crooked. the MP for Quebec West and the Tories’ but they can be as cynical about cru- Railways had been a source of Quebec treasurer. Contracting work saders as they are about the corrupt. political temptation since the first was left to his brother, Robert. After Ontarians hadn’t forgotten the wild tracks were laid. Whatever their limit- they took in Robert as a partner, multi- Liberal days of Mitch Hepburn. less benefit to the folks wherever they million-dollar federal dredging con- passed, building a roadbed and laying tracts in Quebec City invariably went hat may be common sense. After track cost money. Legislatures listened to the Larkin Connolly Company. T all, is one gang really any better to favoured applicants and granted Meanwhile, a public-spirited Tom set than the other? After the busi- out to link Ottawa, Montreal ness-brokered deals that created and Quebec by a railway along the new Conservative Party, why When Sir John A. returned in 1878, the north shore of the St. would Harper Tories be purer he had a whole new shop of favours Lawrence. It seemed a great than Chrétien or Martin Liberals? to offer party loyalists. Under his idea, but quarrelsome politi- After the Pacific Railway Scandal new National Policy, high tariffs cians and municipalities added helped drive Macdonald’s Liber- enormously to the cost. al-Conservatives out of office in favoured businesses who negotiated By 1890, poor Tom had 1874, we got Alexander Macken- protection for their products and lost a million dollars in the line zie’s Liberals. The new prime jobs for their workers. Notoriously, and made enemies of such ris- minister exuded a starchy right- deals were made in the Red Parlour ing Quebec Tories as, J.A. eousness. He personally took up Chapleau and J. Israel Tarte, the Public Works portfolio, then at Toronto’s Queen’s Hotel (now not to mention his ungrateful as now, associated with slush, occupied by the Royal York) brother Bob. Desperate, graft and patronage. Mackenzie whenever Macdonald’s ministers McGreevy turned to Honoré even designed and built a special were in town. True, Macdonald Mercier’s new National Liberal staircase in the Parliament Build- government for help. Success: ings so he could get to and from showed more devotion to political they would vote him $800,000, his office without being mobbed purity. His customs minister, the if McGreevy would leave by job- and favour-seeking Liber- future prime minister Mackenzie $300,000 in Mercier’s coffers. als. Still, they were there because Bowell, Macdonald praised as being Armed with McGreevy money jobs and contracts went to Liber- and other graft, Mercier won al Party loyalists as they had too stupid to be crooked. the 1890 election; Macdonald’s under the Conservatives. If there Tories won a fourth term in was less to give, was it frugality, honesty subsidies by the mile. Those ignored 1891. So did McGreevy and so did or a worldwide economic crisis that also by a passing line could add to the Tarte, but journalists noted the little closed down any and all Pacific Railway clamour until, at added public cost, black bag that never left his side. In schemes and, by 1878, killed Sandy they were included on the line even if May, 1891, he opened its flaps and Mackenzie’s government far more cer- the resulting railway twisted a lot. revealed all the documents about rail- tainly than the Pacific Scandal defeated Promoters also demanded land which ways and dredging and double-dealing Macdonald? would soar in value once the line was that Liberal media needed to blow up complete, yielding an added profit. Tarte’s enemies in the Quebec hen Sir John A. returned in Both Parliament and provincial legisla- Conservative party. By 1893, McGreevy W 1878, he had a whole new shop tures competed to satisfy influential had lost his seat, his fortune, even his of favours to offer party loyalists. promoters and their political agents. freedom. Though a Liberal, Sir Richard Under his new National Policy, high Tom McGreevy was the son of a Cartwright, insisted that McGreevy was tariffs favoured businesses that negoti- Quebec City blacksmith. Building the “the most honest one of the bunch,” ated protection for their products and local customs house made Tom rich Tom became one of the rare corrupt jobs for their workers. Notoriously, enough to hobnob with Macdonald’s Canadian politicians to do jail time. Sir deals were made in the Red Parlour at other Quebec lieutenant, Sir Hector Hector, his patron and accomplice, Toronto’s Queen’s Hotel (now occu- Langevin. Soon, he belonged to the merely resigned. Quebec West voters

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returned Tom McGreevy to Parliament tem. True, Canada was part of an For all the stink, the Liberals lost but he did not survive the Laurier land- English-speaking world that periodical- only three seats in 1908 and gained slide in 1896 and he died penniless. ly fell prey to strange moral enthusi- four in a bigger House. Frankly, voters asms like temperance or honesty in liked Laurier better than his opponent, acdonald believed that grati- government. The so-called McGreevy largely because they associated him M tude was the only foundation Scandal had been exposed in part by a with the longest period of prosperity for the strong party discipline tradi- refugee from Tammany Hall who had most Canadians could then remember. tional parliamentary government exploited his skill by dipping into “Work, Work, Work, Work” sang the requires. Parties based on ideology had Ottawa’s coffers. He earned so much Liberals, “Let Laurier finish his work!” brought rebellions in 1837. that he went home, paid what New Shades of the present, Quebecers iden- Macdonald might deplore American York authorities demanded and gained tified attacks on corruption with politics, but hadn’t Andrew Jackson, fresh fame by publicizing Canada’s attacks on them and on their first-ever the first Democratic president, shame. The British press, naturally, prime minister. Laurier’s Liberals swept the province. Macdonald believed that gratitude was the only foundation for the strong party discipline traditional parliamentary he Conservatives’ turn T came in 1911. As eager government requires. Parties based on ideology had brought as Mackenzie to clean up rebellions in 1837. Macdonald might deplore American government, Robert Borden politics, but hadn’t Andrew Jackson, the first Democratic arrived from Halifax to find president, preached and practiced the principle that “To the a mob of Tory office-seekers at the Ottawa station. They victors belong the spoils”? If people wanted judgeships, post took the horses out of his offices or a railway, they knew where to come and what carriage and joyously arguments made a difference. hauled him up to Parlia- ment Hill to remind him preached and practiced the principle copied with their own observations on who had brought him there. In the that “To the victors belong the spoils”? colonial self-abuse. new cabinet, Borden found his col- If people wanted judgeships, post leagues as eager for the fleshpots as any offices or a railway, they knew where fter three hungry terms in oppo- Liberal. The Halifax reforms were for- to come and what arguments made a A sition. the Tories devoted the gotten as ministers set out to cleanse difference. If MPs. preferred their inde- 1908 election to exposing a generous their departments of partisan Grits. pendence to caucus decisions, their inventory of Laurier-era scandals. Borden would try again, and keep constituents could reward their virtue They included a Railways minister trying, especially after his 1917 Union at a price. If Nova Scotians resented who doubled as a prominent Baptist government allowed him to unload Confederation even after Joseph Howe layman, found in a Montreal hotel Manitoba’s notorious Bob Rogers and was brought to Ottawa, given better room with an “improper person,” and his old-fashioned wing of the terms and a cabinet portfolio, lots of Laurier’s rollicking Minister of Militia, Conservative party. Quebec’s complex other federal patronage would bring Sir Fred Borden, had played his fiddle and virulent patronage battles were them around, whether it was jobs on at military mess dinners and did not handed over to its Liberal wartime pre- the federally owned Intercolonial always come home sober. The 1907 mier, Sir Lomer Gouin, in return for Railway, or repairs to Halifax’s Royal Tory “Halifax Program” talked of a keeping his province quiet. In Navy dockyard. The precedent would civil service commission to end wartime, Borden accepted the US be cited again for Quebec in the 1990s. patronage, fighting greedy monopo- Progressive remedy for corruption — When Laurier brought the Liberals lies by nationalizing telegraph and give power and responsibility to patri- to power in 1896, prosperity was the telephone companies, and banning otic businessmen. Leaky boots and most obvious reason why his govern- corporate political donations. decrepit horses disappeared with a War ment lasted until 1911, but so was a rig- Following contemporary muckraking Purchasing Committee; Sir Joseph orous and thorough grasp of the same styles in the United States, the Flavelle brought polished manage- patronage game the Conservatives had Conservatives cited plenty of Liberal ment skills from meat-packing to the played. Mackenzie’s puritanism was not graft, extravagance and gross huge and enterprising Imperial resurrected, if only because the obvious favouritism. The Liberals, of course, Munitions Board. Wartime secrecy and hypocrisy would have added to opposi- charged right back, including a Tory bipartisan responsibility buried the tion fire. Liberals had learned patronage candidate who distributed whiskey scandal of the Ross Rifle, adopted in was part of the Canadian political sys- under the label of “choice tomatoes.” 1901 by the Laurier Liberals, and pro-

18 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN 2005 Reflecting on Gomery: political scandals and the Canadian memory

Canadian Railway Museum, Montreal Gazette archives

In spite of the Pacific Scandal in 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald was returned to power in 1878 and remained in office until his death in 1891. Among other things, he saw the CPR through to its completion. With Lady Macdonald, he inspects the completed railway at Stave River, near Mission, BC, on July 24, 1886. tected by the half-mad Tory militia fortunes to be made as Canadian meddling and, above all, reaping the expert, Sam Hughes. Civil service booze flowed into the Prohibition- benefits of belated postwar prosperity. reform replaced party fidelity with bound United States, King hoisted him Once again, scandal had failed to competitive exams as the prime quali- swiftly to the Senate. Amidst ensuing bounce a government. fication for joining the public payroll. allegations, Progressive support None of it saved Borden, the drained away from the Liberals. King nce again, of course, the Unionists or Arthur Meighen’s countered with a giveaway budget and O Conservatives got their Conservatives. By 1921, the Liberals an attempted dissolution that would vengeance, four years later, in 1930. So were back under William Lyon allow his party to control the election did the Liberals. Being in power during Mackenzie King. Party affairs, he stub- machinery. In the famous but bewil- the worst of the Great Depression kept bornly insisted to the Progressives who dering King-Byng affair, the governor- Tories in the wilderness for twenty-two kept his government in office, were general, Viscount Byng, refused and years. It also saved Mackenzie King none of his business. Deniability amid gave Meighen a chance to govern. In from the Beauharnois Scandal, a well- cabinet secrecy became King’s best pro- the ensuing screaming match, hapless documented case of lavish kickbacks to tection against a series of scandals. Progressives changed sides again, his party from developers intent on When Customs Minister Jacques Meighen and Byng lost, and King won damming the St. Lawrence to generate Bureau was accused of allowing huge a new majority by denouncing Byng’s hydro-electricity in competition with

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Sir Herbert Holt’s notorious Montreal Liberal ministers bought bargain furni- income transfers soaring, saddling Light, Heat and Power Co. Deniability ture; drug dealer Lucien Rivard pulled Canadians with a deficit that kept us saved King again; party managers took strings in Lester Pearson’s own office, piling up debt until 1996. Was this the blame. So did the equal involve- and Walter Gordon recruited Bay Street electoral corruption? In a democracy ment of Ontario’s Conservative gov- experts who could share the secrets of where the sole public input is at elec- ernment. The scandal’s chief his revolutionary new budget. tion time, why not? contribution to Canadian memory was Desperate, the Liberals reported how a R. Macgregor Dawson used to tell businessman R.O. Sweezey’s delicate German call girl, Gerda Munsinger, had his students that political morality in summation to a parliamentary com- simultaneously serviced a Soviet Canada was a regional phenomenon, mittee of the whole history of political attaché and Canada’s associate minister most clearly demarcated by the corruption: “... gratefulness was always of national defence, not to mention Ottawa River. A bigger modern regarded as an important factor in deal- “Gorgeous George” Hees, Diefenbaker’s change is the transformation in the ing with democratic governments.” minister of trade and commerce. Or was role and operations of government at the scandal that the Liberals had spread all levels. “Civil service” rules have hen the Liberals returned to such top-secret gossip? replaced patronage in filling routine W power in 1935, their very long government jobs in most jurisdictions reign coincided with the greatest tran- id scandals trap Pearson in a but the expanding managerial and quillizer foes of corruption have so far D renewed minority in 1965? They regulatory role of government has led encountered: a dramatic and almost certainly ruined his party’s King-built to a vast multiplication of appointed unbroken period of national prosperity. reputation as an effortless public man- boards, agencies and commissions. In a newly affluent Canada, mickeys of ager, and they paved the way for Since these reflect government policy rum and ill-paid government jobs mat- Pierre-Elliott Trudeau in 1968. A Policy as well as their strict statutory func- tered to fewer and fewer Canadians in Options study in June 2003 found, on tions, agency management reflects the poorest corners of the country. Few the basis of what Pearson actually the philosophy of the politicians in people even voted for the party that accomplished while the media and power as well as meeting familiar rep- resentational criteria of When Laurier brought the Liberals to power in 1896, race, region, gender, lan- prosperity was the most obvious reason why his government guage and age. When con- lasted until 1911, but so was a rigorous and thorough grasp servative governments promise “businesslike” effi- of the same patronage game the Conservatives had played. ciency, they fill boards and Mackenzie’s puritanism was not resurrected, if only because commissions with sympa- the obvious hypocrisy would have added to opposition fire. thetic business people. When Ed Schreyer’s new most consistently advocated for public were otherwise distracted, that NDP government took power in Canada’s postwar welfare state, the he was the best prime minister we Manitoba in 1969, he broke with tra- CCF. The Liberals were good enough, have ever had. His successor, Pierre- dition by appointing lots of young and, as Reg Whitaker demonstrated in Elliott Trudeau, may have been one of working men and women who had The Governing Party, much more oblig- the worst. He alternately captivated never before played any role in public ing than Canada’s socialists to the peo- and repelled Canadians. Whatever he policy. When postwar prosperity ple who really paid for the governing meant by “participatory democracy” opened Canada to renewed massive Liberals. In 1957, just as postwar pros- ended by 1972. Some of his arrogance immigration, a massive bureaucracy perity was starting to slip, voters played rubbed off on colleagues like his attor- of citizenship court judges and immi- another dirty trick on the Tories and ney-general, Otto Lang, who raised a gration appeal boards became a vast gave John Diefenbaker a minority fol- scandal when the air force flew his new source of government patronage lowed by a huge majority in 1958 for children’s nanny back to Scotland. and, to both critics and bigots, an promising even more money for the Convinced by his disastrous 1972 equally large source of prejudice and sick and elderly and for rural regions. election that politics was not for incompetence. Was this corrupt or He actually kept most of those promis- adults, Trudeau reverted to old- simply democratic? es but few noticed. When the Liberals fashioned tricks. He sneered at Bob returned to power in 1963, with a mere Stanfield for proposing wage and price he history of political corruption minority and an unexpected range of controls in 1974, and introduced T in Canada is easy to record and media-fed scandals, something like our them himself in 1975. With John to denounce but only partisans and contemporary scandal season played Turner’s pre-election 1974 budget, idealists find it easy to define. Its out in Parliament. Now-forgotten Trudeau cut income taxes and sent roots, as Sweezey confessed, rest in

20 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN 2005 Reflecting on Gomery: political scandals and the Canadian memory the admirable human quality of tions and trade unions, and with Bill after federal immigration minister “gratefulness” and the more obnox- C-24, adopted as Chrétien was leav- Judy Sgro was forced to resign by alle- ious quality of arrogance. Any study ing office in 2003, Ottawa now has gations about a Rumanian exotic of corruption is meaningless or even severe limits on what both organiza- dancer and a Sikh businessman, those deceitful, Professor Ken- neth Gibbons adds, For all the stink, the Liberals lost only three seats in 1908 and without serious thought gained four in a bigger House. Frankly, voters liked Laurier about cures. “Throwing the rascals out” without better than his opponent, largely because they associated him replacing them with with the longest period of prosperity most Canadians could even bigger scoundrels then remember. “Work, Work, Work, Work” sang the Liberals, simply encourages the “Let Laurier finish his work!” Shades of the present, Quebecers victors to take up bad habits. Would Stephen identified attacks on corruption with attacks on them and on Harper do a better job their first-ever prime minister. Laurier’s Liberals swept the than Brian Mulroney in province. 1984 when he took over a Liberal-bred mess or will he, like tions and individuals can give. The allegations were completely refuted, Paul Martin, merely be waiting for price has been growing taxpayer sub- to the satisfaction of parliamentary Judge Gomery’s report? sidization of political activity, at ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro. least for organizations that are Was Sgro reinstated? Did she get more survey of Canadian members of judged to be competitive enough. than a photo-op from the prime min- Aparliament in the 1980s revealed Does that unfairly exclude new- ister who fired her or an apology from that most Liberals and Conservatives entrants to political competition? the opposition leader and colleagues had sought election for reasons of They think so, while the established who had blackened her name? Did personal fulfilment; only the bulk of parties think that’s fine. the media apologize for joining the NDPers were driven by ideological A fashionable solution in the lynch mob? No. No. No. And no. goals. Canadians have consistently 1990s was a heavy new dose of ethics, Why not? Our history, unrepentently, favoured non-ideological parties, imposed by commissioners, codes continues. capable of embracing just about any and ethics educators. In a secular age, policy voters demand, particularly if this may be the best we can do to re- Desmond Morton is a professor of history it accords with enough of their establish values once taught in at McGill University, founding director of wealthy backers to keep funds flow- Sunday School, but what are the the McGill Institute for the Study of ing into party coffers. Only Quebec rules? Will we punish public figures Canada, and author of 39 books on and Manitoba have absolute bans on who treat them with contempt? Will Canadian political, military and indus- political donations from corpora- we recognize innocence? Months trial relations history.

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