I was thinking this morning of a man called Dalton Bales. He was a lawyer and a North York Alderman before being elected provincially to the Robarts government in the late sixties.
He rom became Cabinet Minister in several important portfolios. A controversy erupted over a joint purchase of land in Markham by several cabinet ministers. Bales offered to resign from Minister ofMunicipal Affairs Premier Bill Davis,who succeeded Robarts,refused to accept his resignation.
The first Conflict of Interest guidelines for cabinet ministers followed thereafter .
Mr. Bales was dropped from cabinet in the next shuffle .He quit politics in the next election.
He stepped off the curb in front of a car on Bayview at ten-thirty on a rainy night and was killed.
A small item in the media noted the manner of his death.
He was fifty-nine years old.As a student he was employed in a law office.
I often think of Dalton Bales. And Darcy McKeough. He also was Minister of Municipal Affairs.
At that time the Minister had to sign off on all subdivision agreements in the Province.
His family were active in development in the Sarnia area. He inadvertently signed an agreement
along with a pile of others . Resigned his post. Returned to a comfortable and secure private life soon after.
The day before yesterday, even as Premier Wynn was proudly promoting her government's avowal to
municipal accountability, the Minister of Energy was angrily denying revelations of billions of dollars of waste and excessive spending and over and mis-leading charges to consumers to pay for the boondoggle.
The Provincial auditor, appointed by the Province, to fullfill a function prescribed by law ,was being challenged and figures disputed by both the Minister and the Premier .
The Minister's resignation was neither offered nor accepted.
The bizarre sequel to this story was provided by Andrea Horvath, august leader of the NDP.
Her profound observation was the Minister was sexist because the auditor was female.
It is to weep for what once was.
Thursday, 11 December 2014
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7 comments:
Andrea Who ?
It almost makes one long for the old-fashioned sex scandals one could understand. Xaviera Hollander & Gerda Munsinger blew Canadians away.
Perhaps Wynne and Mr. Energy would like the opportunity to conduct their own audits in order to find the errors they accuse the auditor-general of making.
Politicians seem to act like children. They take the ball and run home when things aren't going their way, which is usually the case these days.
When they appear to have done something right, they can't seem to accept that credit graciously. Instead they hold up their right hand middle finger pointing to the sky, as if to say" "So there!"
The auditor-general's report is her annual report covering all provincial revenue and expenditure.
No doubt it will mention the MaRS building in Toronto. According to the project Chair, Gordon Nixon, former CEO of Royal Bank, about 65% of the building has received expressions of interest to rent space, and more is coming in weekly.
Provided the rental rates are commercial it is possible that this white elephant will turn into a unicorn.
They should have an audit done before they pass the new Pension Plan Act Bill56. And it will pass with a majority govt. Funny how the details are not being published. They're also planning to having the multi $billion debt ridden WSIB run the plan. Kiss more $Billions of our hard earned money good bye.
And what exactly did Ontarians expect bringing the Liberals back for another 4yrs, with a majority government. The billions in scandal in the last 12yrs, will just continue. The majority govt. Ontarians handed them just said: "we want more of the same please!" Sit back and bring out the popcorn. There's going to be a number of expensive 4yr Liberal performances.
It might be appropriate if Wynne considered changing her name to Losse.
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