scandal – Page 9 – mackaycartoons

Thursday July 12, 2012

July 12, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 12, 2012

McGuinty buying Liberal seats with gas plant move

It’s called the Liberal seat saver program.

In the midst of last October’s election, the Liberals were under the gun.

With a minority government looming, they cancelled a controversial gas-fired power plant in Mississauga, saying they would “move” it.

In a stunning admission to the Legislature’s estimates committee Wednesday, Energy Minister Chris Bentley said the decision to scrap the plant came from the Liberal Party – not from the government.

You thought robocalls were bad? How about a party that, mid-election, takes $180 million of your hard-earned tax dollars – and piddles it down the toilet just so they’ll get re-elected?

At least we know now what a seat in the Legislature costs.

Assuming the $180 million cancellation cost ensured the re-election of Liberal stalwarts Charles Sousa (Mississauga South), Laurel Broten (Etobicoke Lakeshore) and Donna Cansfield (Etobicoke Centre), we can assume a seat is worth $60 million each.

Throw in Bob Delaney (Mississauga-Streetsville) and Amrit Mangat (Mississauga-Brampton South) and you bring the per-seat price down to a more affordable $36 million.

Any way you look at it, taxpayers got hosed, voters got bamboozled – and a vast amount of money that could have been used for healthcare got wasted.

NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns wasn’t over the top Tuesday, he was simply stating facts, when he called it scandalous. (Source: Canoe.ca)

Saturday January 28, 2012

January 28, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday January 28, 2012

The politics of grounding ORNGE high flyers

No other Liberal minister disarms a debating opponent as deftly as Deb Matthews when she rises in the Legislature to say, in so many words, “I feel your pain.”

Now, the minister of empathy has shown she has a spine of steel.

Her surgical strikes against the executives and directors at ORNGE have unburdened its fleet of air ambulances from the greed and guile of its disgraced leadership team. Matthews moved with calculated resolve to dismantle the corporate empire and fiscal camouflage erected by ORNGE and its affiliated companies.

Last month, infuriated by a series of Star articles, she sidelined the charismatic Chris Mazza from his perch as CEO — he of the egregious $1.4 million annual income.

This week, she swept aside the rest of that legacy by bouncing the interim ORNGE president and the entire board. The affiliated Ornge Global Solutions — whose questionable side deals were shrouded in secrecy — will be wound down.

Matthews is not covered in glory here, nor are the Liberals. The government ignored persistent opposition questioning for months, and it took sustained coverage in the Star to ratchet up the pressure.

But she has acted decisively against an organization that was midwifed by her government and is still heavily staffed by Liberal insiders. Mazza’s rise to power at ORNGE came courtesy of former health minister George Smitherman, who eagerly embraced his vision for a privatized air ambulance service. As with ORNGE, Smitherman’s fingerprints are also on eHealth — another notorious political albatross that Matthews inherited. (Source: Toronto Star)

Tuesday November 18, 2008

November 18, 2008 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 18, 2008

Bill’s Overseas Ties Entangle Hillary

Former President Bill Clinton’s globe-trotting business deals and fundraising for his foundation sometimes put his activities abroad at odds with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and could cause complications if President-elect Barack Obama picks her to be secretary of state.

Bill Clinton’s fundraising for his presidential library and charitable activities also could pose additional headaches for his wife if he selects her for the job.

Since leaving the White House in early 2001, Bill Clinton has raised at least $353 million for the William J. Clinton Foundation, which finances his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., as well as his global anti-AIDS initiative and other charitable efforts.

The former president has raised money overseas beyond the Chinese Internet company’s contributions: from the Saudi royal family, the king of Morocco, a foundation linked to the United Arab Emirates and the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, The New York Times reported last year.

His foundation reaped millions of dollars from Canadian mining tycoon Frank Giustra, and Clinton accompanied Giustra on a 2005 trip to Kazakhstan, whose human-rights record Hillary Clinton had criticized, the newspaper reported. The pair met with Kazakhstan’s president, and within days Giustra’s company landed preliminary agreements giving it rights to buy into uranium projects controlled by a Kazakhstan state-owned enterprise. Clinton said he had nothing to do with the deal. (Source: Yahoo News)

Thursday March 11, 1999

May 11, 1999 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 11, 1999

Glen Clark’s political demise is imminent

Thanks to the reluctant support of his caucus, it seems like British Columbia Premier Glen Clark has a brief reprieve from early retirement. No matter. There’s no graceful exit for the besieged NDP leader and his party. Popular support stands at about 17 per cent. The government is nearly out of money and needs to recall the legislature to present a budget. B.C.’s economy is on the skids. The diminutive, feisty premier is toast.For political reasons, Clark and his dwindling band of supporters decided the premier shouldn’t step aside right now. Politically, they may be right. To date, there is no hard evidence that Clark was involved in anything serious enough to require his resignation. Quitting now would only lead to widespread speculation that he is guilty of more serious sins than having shady neighbour Dimitrios Pilarinos build a porch on the premier’s house and cottage. Strategically, it’s better for the government that Clark stay on for a respectable period of time, then resign as quietly as possible.

Of course, that’s a common sensical sort of outcome, and common sense isn’t abundant in British Columbia provincial politics. Remember Socred Premier Bill Vander Zalm, who fell from grace in 1988 amidst allegations of corruption? Then there was NDP Premier Mike Harcourt, who fell on his sword in 1996 because of his government’s apparently inappropriate use of gambling proceeds. As far back as anyone cares to remember, B.C. politics have been wild and wooly.

Even so, the brief Glen Clark mandate will go down as one of the wildest, at least in recent memory. Clark was barely elected when the first tempest struck over promises his government made about balancing the budget. Instead, the books showed a burgeoning deficit. Things went downhill from there.

Clark, of course, has a justification for his government’s woes. It’s a common refrain from politicians acting in desperation: The media are to blame. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial)