I find silly that Glen Clark, previous Premier of British Columbia, has been criminally charged for allowing his neighbor and friend Dimitrios Pilarinos obtain a provisional approval for a casino licence(1); while at the same time we have a federal government doling millions and millions of HRDC grant dollars to their friends. We find that in Mr. Chrétien's St. Maurice riding there have been at least four RCMP's probes into misuse of grant money(2). Paul Lemire and Mario Pépin, two of Mr. Chrétien's political supporters, have been charged of theft and fraud; and then we have Yvon Duhaime who received $1-million in HRDC grants to expand a hotel he bought from Mr. Chrétien, even though his business was near bankruptcy and he had convictions for assault, death threats and repeat drunk driving, as well as past hotel troubles; and then we have Pierre Thibault, who received $600,000 of grant money approved directly by the Prime Minister himself even though he did not file a business plan with HRDC officials, and even though he had admitted to have misappropriated close to $1-million from his partners in Belgium.

You think that is all? No, there is much more, but for us it is just enough to exclude Mr. Chrétien's for another mandate and additional damage. Please, don't vote for Chrétien's Liberals, because the only Liberal value they have is laundered money. I feel a bit better now, that we have fingered Mr. Chrétien. Pierre Elliot Trudeau taught his sons that they must never finger an individual, but what the individual stand for. But I tell you, I feel good in fingering both the Prime Minister and his Liberal values!

And now we just go over the few stupidities of our politicians. Alexa McDonough, the leader of the New Democrats, has stated "I don't think there's any question that there are people who are dying unnecessarily, or dying terrible deaths, because of the massive cuts to our health care system(3)." Alexa McDonough, and in this respect Joe Clark as well, has her numbers upside down. Now we know that money is misspent in healthcare(4), but we also know that conventional wisdom has accepted the fact that the health care's gambling casino is not underfunded(5)!

Then we have Joe Clark, leader of the Conservative Party, who credits Brian Mulroney and his free-trade deals for the surging economy and says "This is what's given the Liberals a surplus, not anything Chrétien has done(6)." This statement is a laugh and if our readers want to know more about economics they should periodically visit the web site of the brilliant economist Brain MacLean(7). And if you want specific information to what happened economically to Canada in the last 10 years then you should read the article "CANADA'S STANDARD OF LIVING: WHY DO WE LAG BEHIND THE U.S.?(8)"

Then we have Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day who goes around every day, except on Sundays, peddling his record for budgetary reforms when he was Treasurer of the Government of Alberta(9), just like presidential candidate George Bush peddles his record as Governor of Texas: a BLANK. This is another laugh. But listen, it is better to laugh than give another mandate to Mr. Chretien. You get it? Please, don't vote for Mr. Chretien!

The only good soul so far appears to be Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe who has not been saying much beyond accusing Chretien of calling an election because he's afraid of the results of police investigations into his governments handling of subsidies and grants(10) .

I have reiterated more than once in my writing that democracy begins with us as individual citizens, and not by belonging to a party or casting a vote. And this is more than true at this election time. What a waste of money and time!

References/Endnotes

Articles by Mario deSantis

1. Clark charged with breach of trust, fraud. I am shocked': A major blow for former premier's political career: Home renovations contribute to downfall, by Ian Bailey, October 21, 2000, National Post

2. The anatomy of the Liberals' HRDC scandal. Auditor-General to table report on $1B jobs fund fiasco, by Andrew McIntosh, October 17, 2000, National Post

3. Health-care cuts 'are risking lives'. NDP's McDonough says Liberals putting rich 'cronies' ahead of some patients, JEFF SALLOT, October 24, 2000 The Globe and Mail

4. The Mismanagement Saga in Health Care, by Mario deSantis, October 17,2000

5. $64-billion insufficient to stop bleeding. Provinces hitting 'the medicare wall', by Brad Evenson, October 12, 2000, National Post

6.  Clark says Chrétien power-hungry, lacking vision, CBC Canada WebPosted Tue Oct 24 10:10:45 2000

7. CANADA'S ECONOMY IN THE NEWSPAPERS, an email newsweekly | ISSN 1492-2274 by Brian K. MacLean

8. CANADA'S STANDARD OF LIVING: WHY DO WE LAG BEHIND THE U.S.? Toronto Dominion Bank, May 26, 1999

9. Day, PM trade fire on economy, Sheldon Alberts and Robert Fife, October 24, 2000, National Post

10. Duceppe targets P.C. defectors, CBC Canada, WebPosted Mon Oct 23 14:40:27 2000