CABINET COMPETENCE

SHOULD COME BEFORE SLUSH FUND POLITICS

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – December 16, 2003

Paul Martin promises to wipe out the “democratic deficit” in Parliament.  In a true democracy, and if Paul Martin believes what he says: Why does it matter what city or province a Minister is from?  His goal should be to find the best Cabinet ministers.  Why should it matter what region, what gender, what ethnic group or other inherent characteristic one possesses?

Why do we buy into the Liberal thinking that federal government is one big Santa Claus whose purpose is to hand out goodies to companies like Bombardier and special interest groups?  Why do we force communities to go hat-in-hand to beg the federal government to get some of their own money back? Government doesn’t give out anything that isn’t ours to begin with.  Why not just leave the money in taxpayers’ pockets to spend in our communities?

I’m sick and tired of everyone speculating on whether Mr. Martin’s Cabinet is balanced or not.  As a Canadian we should be more concerned about how competent and intelligent Cabinet ministers are – not whether they hail from a certain region or whether they’re male or female.

The criteria being used to judge our new Prime Minister’s Cabinet picks are extremely flawed.  Cabinet minister’s selected by province will be judged by how big a gravy train he or she drives – not by how well they fulfill their duties and responsibilities to all taxpayers on a fair and equal basis.  Mr. Martin’s Cabinet selection process has guaranteed that slush fund politics will continue in Canada for as long as he is Prime Minister.  This is a real political problem – much bigger than the democratic deficit.