Speaking of the professionals, Paul Tuns at the National Post (good to see that byline in that paper), takes us back to another time and another government:
The Gomery commission never established a direct link between Chrétien and any specific act of wrongdoing. Yet, in the first of two reports he released, Gomery found the PMO responsible for the kickback scheme. And “Since Mr. Chrétien chose to run the program from his own office,” he wrote, “and to have his own [political] staff take charge of its direction, he is accountable for the defective manner in which [the program] was implemented.” Furthermore, because chief of staff Jean Pelletier “failed to take the most elementary precautions against mismanagement,” Gomery found Chrétien’s top political advisor shouldered part of the blame, too. He went on to add that regardless of the “good intentions” of fostering national unity, they are “not an excuse for maladministration of this magnitude.”
You had to kind of admire Papa Jean. Like in comedy and sex, timing is everything in politics. Leaving that kind of a mess for Paul Martin. Just classic.
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