patronage

The exchange you can’t miss from this afternoon’s Question Period

RhetoricalIy speaking, it was a dazzling duel

Postmedia checks on the welfare of defeated Conservative candidates.

Of appointments to the Immigration and Refugee Board, Jason Kenney told the House on Tuesday that, in fact, he was aware, he thought, of two appointees, out of a total of 140, who had “any association with the Conservative party.”

Responding yesterday during QP to complaints about the Immigration and Refugee Board, Jason Kenney sought the high road.

It’s been two months now since the House was in session and the NDP’s explicitly quotable Pat Martin had daily access to an array of television cameras and boom mics. No doubt then it was with some degree of pent up energy that Mr. Martin spoke with reporters yesterday on the subject of government patronage and managed the following.

The Globe’s Steve Chase reviews yesterday’s elimination of 245 appointments.

With another round of floor-crosser rumour-mongering behind us, our Katie Engelhart considers what the Larry O’Brien trial means for the future of political favours.

Conservative election platform, 2006. The Liberals have repeatedly appointed insiders, in some cases completely unqualified, to important public offices. Liberal candidates and MPs have received appointments as heads of Crown corporations, board members, and ambassadors. Liberal staffers, including some of those responsible for the sponsorship program, have worked their way into key positions in the public service.

Andrew Coyne on Harper’s motives in the Doer appointment

UPDATE: In the interests of fairness, I should point out that this story never really went anywhere. After a quick start, the Tories never opened the floodgates on patronage in the way we expected. And the appointments they did make were not nearly as nakedly partisan as we had come to expect from the Liberals all those years. So, in all seriousness, nothing to see here…