Through the Eyes of a Pirate

Bev Oda, the International Co-operation Minister for Harper’s Conservative Government, announced her resignation from both the cabinet and politics earlier today. The scandal-clad representative from Clarington, Scugog and Uxbridge leaves with a golden government pension, available to MPs after a meagre six years of service. The Minister gave no reason for her departure from politics⁽¹⁾, but given the trail of fiscal impropriety she left behind, it isn’t a surprise.

Even earlier in her tenure with the government, Oda failed to disclose limo rides, food, drinks and hotel bills. The bills were quite large, with one case marking over $1000 for 300 bottles of water and 300 servings of jasmine tea⁽⁴⁾. Much like with the later orange juice and Savoy hotel expenses, Oda did pay a portion of the costs back. This is more than can be said of MacKay’s search & rescue helicopter rides, but still an abuse of government funds.

Despite her self-inflicted scandals, upon announcing her resignation Harper felt obliged to compliment her on work well done. Harper claimed “Bev has also promoted accountability and effectiveness for Canada’s aid programs and has championed high-profile efforts to respond to humanitarian tragedies in Haiti, Pakistan and the Horn of Africa. Through Bev’s leadership, Canada has also met, ahead of schedule, its commitment to double aid to Africa. This is a record of which to be proud.”⁽⁵⁾  This is remarkably high praise for the outgoing minister, but the general consensus is that Bev Oda was encouraged to leave her position in advance of being removed from it in Harper’s much-anticipated cabinet shuffle this fall. If this is the case, her resignation is likely meant to brush her lack of accountability out of the public spotlight, allowing the Harper Government to try to retake a squeaky clean image it hasn’t earned.

Whatever her reasons, and whatever the pressures, the resignation of Bev Oda marks the second emptying of a Conservative seat in parliament in recent weeks. When the by-elections roll around, it will be interesting to see which party takes the openings. Either way, with this particular minister out of the picture, we can all hope that some of the free-spending ways of Conservative Minsiters will come to a halt. Harper’s tag-line has always been about improving the economy, and if he starts by sweeping up MP and Cabinet misspending, we’ll all be better for it.

Correction Notice: The original article incorrectly stated Flaherty has used the helicopter to be retrieved. It was actually Peter MacKay. Our apologies for any confusion this may have caused.

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