James Ferrabee: Mulroney earns his rest

Email To Friend Email To Friend | Print Print |23/05/09

There are many more losers than winners at the inquiry into former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber.

The list of losers start with Brian Mulroney, battered and bruised after 15 years of attacks on his personal integrity in books, on TV and in parliamentary committees. None of it has to do with his time in office so it is not a probe of his policies while prime minister.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a loser because he launched the inquiry and commanded his caucus members not to speak to Brian Mulroney. Treating Mulroney as an outcast angered many of his MPs and in doing that, Harper made an enemy of Mulroney and damaged his own position as Conservative party leader..

The media is a loser for printing articles or broadcasting stories whose sole aim was to bring down Mulroney whether or not the evidence justified the charges. The media will print a correction from time to time, but will rarely admit when they are wrong.

Elected officials in Canada are losers. They include cabinet ministers in Ottawa and the provinces, mayors of small communities, school board members, anyone who wants to serve the public good in government. The hounding Mulroney received will scare away bright and ambitious people from serving in these positions.

The Canadian people are losers because they paid millions of dollars for inquiries and parliamentary hearings where the same questions are asked and the answers offer almost no new information.

The only winners are the opposition Liberal, New Democratic and Bloc parties who will take advantage of the split in the Conservatives at the next election. Whether or not they organized the 15-year-long vendetta against Mulroney, they are taking full advantage of Mulroney’s troubles to win votes.

Mulroney has his faults, like all of us. He is loyal to his friends who often got him into trouble. He enjoys friends who are rich which he is not. It is difficult to compete with them on a prime minister’s pension.

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