It was last October that I came across the term "Tobinism" succinctly defined by Pierre Bourque as the art of our politicians to speak out and lie to the listeners(2). At that time, Brian Tobin broke his promise to serve as the premier of Newfoundland and entered federal politics after being invited by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

And today, we have another display of Tobinism by Industry Minister Brian Tobin as Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson has been proposing additional Rules of Law related to the ethics guidelines of our ministers(3). Wilson's proposed additional ethical rules have been prompted as a consequence of Jean Chrétien's alleged impropriety in arranging a federal loan for his criminal friend Yvone Duhaime(4), owner of the near bankrupt Grand-Mère Inn. Jean Chrétien's improprieties for arranging this loan have been raised in Parliament by the Opposition, and the matter of the timing of the sale of Chrétien's golf shares has surfaced all over again to haunt the Prime Minister.

The golf course is adjacent to the Grand-Mère Inn, in Chrétien's hometown of Shawinigan, and the Opposition has been charging the Prime Minister of being in conflict of interest when he personally participated to the arranging of the above loan since at that time Jean Chrétien still owned share of the golf course. But Brian Tobin has come to the defense of the Prime Minister saying that Jean Chrétien didn't know he owned the golf shares because such shares were kept in a blind trust. Howard Wilson has then responded that Brian Tobin was not correct and that there was no such a blind trust. Subsequently, Tobin corrected himself saying that the golf shares were not placed in a blind trust because they were sold before Mr. Chrétien became Prime Minister. Again, Mr. Wilson had to correct Mr. Tobin and said there was no trusteeship of any kind involved.

The morale of the story is that we try to fight the Tobinism of our politicians with additional Rules of Law, and in the process we lose our freedom, and as we lose our freedom so our politicians arrange for more additional Rules of Law. It's a vicious circle. And, when are we going to break it?

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Roman Historian 55~117 AD http://library.thinkquest.org/11402/bio_tacitus.html

2. "DAUPHIN" TOBINISMS, Note by Pierre Bourque, October 16, 2001 http://www.bourque.org/pb.html http://www.bourque.org/pb.html

3. PM shouldn't set ethics rules, opposition says, CAMPBELL CLARK, February 10, 2001, The Globe and Mail, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/National/20010210/ULOANN2.html

4. We must obey the Rule of Law but not trust luminary lawyer Jean Chrétien, by Mario deSantis, February 8, 2001 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2001_300/desantis321/ruleoflaw.html