The Winnipeg Free Press
February 26, 2004
Several years ago, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a bestseller called The Tipping Point — How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
According to Mr. Gladwell, there are such things as social epidemics. Just as ideas, products and messages can spread like a virus throughout an organization or a society, so too can behaviours, good and bad. Small causes which are contagious can have big effects. The dramatic moment at which a small cause has a big effect, changing everything, Gladwell called the "tipping point."
As everyone knows, the Liberal establishment in Ottawa is being shaken to its foundations by the sponsorship scandal. But this latest sordid tale is just one in a long list of ethical failures that have characterized the Liberal government since 1993, when it committed itself to ushering in "a new era of ethical government."
Why should this particular scandal "stick" to the government when so many others have not? Why does this particular patronage-driven misuse of public funds, involving $250 million, threaten the life of the Liberal government, when the "billion-dollar boondoggle" at Human Resources Development several years ago did not?
The reality is that the government has finally reached the Ethical Tipping Point — that dramatic moment at which what began as small and "manageable" ethical indiscretions has morphed and multiplied into an ethical disaster capable of changing everything — even bringing down the government itself.
Consider the cumulative ethical record of the Liberal administration:
About one year after its election, the Chretien regime encountered its first ethical challenge. The minister responsible for the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission was found to be lobbying his own agency in support of a radio-station application by a constituent. A minor indiscretion, said the prime minister. No problem, said the ethics counsellor. And Finance Minister Paul Martin? He saw no evil, heard no evil, and said and did nothing.
Next, the Chretien government set up two public inquiries into what it considered major failures by the previous Conservative administration, each with serious ethical dimensions. The Krever Inquiry was established to "get at the truth" about a contamination of the Canadian blood supply that ultimately killed or damaged the health of thousands of Canadians. The Somalia Inquiry was charged with getting to the truth about the alleged deaths of three Somali civilians at the hands of Canadian peacekeepers.
The government was zealous to get at the truth — as long as the blame for those tragedies could be attached to the Mulroney administration. But as soon as evidence started to surface that the earliest warnings about tainted blood were made to the Liberal administration prior to 1984, and that there was a culture of coverup at National Defence which implicated the Chr tien administration, the government's zeal for getting at the truth evaporated. From that point on, the Chretien regime used every device in the book to limit and frustrate both inquiries.
The prime minister refused to accept any responsibility for stonewalling the inquiries and aiding the coverup of unpleasant truths. The ethics counsellor professed to see no ethical issues at all in the government's behaviour, only "differences of opinion" between the government and the opposition. And Finance Minister Martin? He saw no evil, heard no evil, and said and did nothing.
Did the ethical sensitivity of the Chr tien government improve after its re-election in 1997? Did the multiplication of ethical failings which might eventually lead to a crisis of confidence in the government — an ethical tipping point — diminish in frequency and magnitude? The record speaks for itself.
In October 2000, after a year of insistence by the Official Opposition that there was something seriously wrong at Human Resources Development, the Auditor General confirmed what became know as "the billion-dollar boondoggle." Files representing roughly $1 billion in federal "grants and contributions" had been grossly mismanaged, with blatant favouritism being shown to Liberal-held ridings, including that of the prime minister.
But the HRD minister and the prime minister denied any responsibility for wrongdoing, insisting that "everything was in order." The ethics counsellor, true to form, sided with his boss. And Finance Minister Martin? He saw no evil, heard no evil, and said and did nothing.
By now a pattern had been established within the Liberal administration for dealing with any evidence or allegation of ethical malfeasance. Ignore, deny, blame others. Delay, divert attention, and investigate only as a measure of last resort. Above all, never, ever, accept personal responsibility.
Thus when the last major ethical failure of the Chretien administration, prior to the sponsorship scandal, surfaced — the so-called Shawinigate affair involving the prime minister himself — all concerned had their roles and lines down pat.
The prime minister categorically denied twisting the arm of the president of the Business Development Bank to get a loan for a friend whose business interests were intertwined with his own. But, this month, a Quebec Superior Court judge confirmed that the prime minister and his aides had done precisely that.
The "independent" ethics counsellor steadfastly maintained the prime minister's innocence throughout Shawinigate, even taking the unprecedented step of issuing a statement to this effect during the 2000 federal election. But, earlier this year, the deputy ethics counsellor told the Federal Court of Canada that Jean Chretien vetted all decisions written by Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson on matters involving conflict of interest — including those concerning his own behaviour.
And Finance Minister Martin? Nobody knew it at the time, but this would be his last chance to distance himself personally and politically from the ethical practices of the Chretien administration, which were about to reach the "tipping point." The finance minister — and I sat not 20 feet away from him across the floor in the Commons day after day while Chretien denied the truth of Shawinigate — saw no evil, heard no evil, and said and did nothing.
Now, of course, the former finance minister is the prime minister and has much to say about his desire to restore integrity to the government of Canada in the wake of the sponsorship scandal. But, for most Canadians, it's too little, too late. The Liberals have reached and gone beyond the Ethical Tipping Point.
The task of restoring integrity to the federal government must be assigned to others.