Voters will be reminded of 'misconduct'
Former Ontario immigration and citizenship minister Mike Colle isn't the first loyal lapdog to take a fall for his leader. And he won't be the last. But before you think the provincial Liberal government scandal over its' $32 million political slush fund was resolved by Colle's resignation last week, think again.

For as much as Colle was directly involved in dispensing these grants to a host of Liberal-favored groups without due process or anything resembling it, so too were Premier Dalton McGuinty and Finance Minister Greg Sorbara. For starters, Sorbara had to review every expenditure, so he obviously either wasn't paying attention or he - like Colle and McGuinty - figured the normal rules of giving value for the taxpayer's money doesn't apply to Liberals. (A director of the Iranian- Canadian Community Centre, which got $200,000, is a long-time friend of Sorbara. A former director is the Liberal candidate in Richmond Hill.)

As for McGuinty, look at the newspaper pictures last week following the release of provincial Auditor General Jim McCarter's report on the grants - McCarter called the Liberal program "one of the worst I have ever seen with virtually no controls" - and you'll see the smiling faces of Colle and McGuinty, both wielding cricket bats, at an August 2006 dinner presenting a $1 million cheque to the Ontario Cricket Association.

The Ontario Liberals, of course, aren't the first governing party to be caught doling out money for partisan purposes while ignoring any public checks and balances - we only have to think back to the last federal Liberal adscam scandal for that.

But what sets McGuinty and his gang apart from the usual political slush-funders is that in the cricket association case, they only asked the government for $150,000 but got a million. It is not uncommon for groups to ask for more than they really need, figuring that they won't get everything they ask for. But it must be unprecedented in the annals of Canadian political handouts for a group to get more than six times what they ask for and - even better (or worse for the taxpayers) - with no strings attached.

It was so much money in fact that the association hasn't been able to spend it. Instead, they've invested a good chunk of your tax dollars and are continuing to profit from it.

And McGuinty, as the newspaper photos show, was at the dinner when the grant was doled out. If it's worth Colle's head, what about McGuinty's too?

Most of the money, of course, was aimed at various ethnic groups hoping that their gratitude would lead them to vote Liberal on Oct. 10.

It's bad enough that the premier was directly active on this file, but even worse that when the opposition parties began asking question about these grants last April following publication of details in the media, rather than own up to what he'd done, McGuinty's first response was to accuse critics of racism. Now that's classy, eh? He later backed off the racism charge, but only under pressure. But the fact that he would stoop to such a disgusting tactic surely should make voters ask if this is the sort of man really fit to govern them.

The opposition parties, as you'd expect, had accused McGuinty of playing partisan politics with public money. In his report, the auditor general found "no evidence" that organization received grants because of its political ties, a finding which McGuinty chose to highlight (as opposed to being contrite over handing out millions of dollars with no questions asked.)

But that finding of no direct political ties actually misses the point. For one thing, many who got the grants were active Liberals, and all they had to do was ask the minister or one of his staff members and, presto, money appeared. For another thing, even if they weren't active Liberals, the specific aim of the program was to enhance Liberal election chances among the various ethnic groups receiving the grants. So in that sense, these grants were nothing but partisan politics.

Had McGuinty been honorable enough to admit his wrongdoing last April, the issue would have been forgotten.

But since he stonewalled - even trying to delay the auditor's report until after the election - it's his fault, and his alone, that it comes so close to the fall election.

Both Conservative Leader John Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton have promised to remind voters of what Tory called this Liberal "misconduct," and no doubt they will.

Why not hand out mini cricket bats to remind voters of the admonition from the auditor general that the Liberal program just wasn't cricket?

Even by shabby political standards, it was pretty disgusting.