Ignatieff’s Liberals only believe in transparency when it suits them. Ditto the NDP

Transparency is a cornerstone of democracy. Without transparency, democracies merely devolve into the equivalent of totalitarian states where those in power can do anything they want, and employing whatever false pretenses they wish to “justify” their unilateral actions.

Without the ability to reveal the truth about otherwise false pretenses, citizens become merely the instruments by which others attain absolute power.

So why do the Liberals under Michael Ignatieff only care about transparency when it suits their purposes, as we are witnessing in the events of the last two weeks? This makes them virtually no different that the Harper Conservatives.

Invoking principles like transparency, as the Liberals are doing on the matter of seeking access to the information contained in the blacked out documents concerning Afghan detainees, is not a principle if it is selectively administered and selectively championed, as the Liberals are doing. Instead it is merely an artifice, an excuse, a means of self advancement and political opportunism of the most cynical and exploitative kind.

Why are the Liberals not demanding the information contained in the blacked out documents that the Harper government offered up as their only “proof” of tax leakage with the same level of vigour and sanctimonious zeal as they are displaying on the Afghan detainee file? Why? The ONLY conclusion is that the Liberal Party’s interest in transparency is reserved for those situations that benefit THEM, and the need for transparency is not a universal principle of the Liberal party and designed to benefit CANADIANS.

I want nothing to do with a party or a political leader who applies such a fundamental principle like transparency in a completely arbitrary, ad hoc and self serving manner. Ignatieff needs to correct this gross disparity being displayed by his parties actions, Failure to do so, will only mean that the potential solution afforded by a Liberal Party in office, will only be as bad ( maybe worse?) as the one they hope to replace, namely the Harper Conservatives, when it comes to achieving any degree of real transparency for Canadians from those who govern us and those who ostensibly represent us.

My own Member of Parliament,. Carolyn Bennett, affords another good example of the Liberal party’s true inner beliefs when it comes to transparency, when she openly opposed in February of this year, the idea of Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page, making his findings available to the public at large (true transparency) as opposed to what she was advocating, just to MPs (faux transparency and political opportunism).

For the time being I think the Liberal Party needs to climb down from its high horse, as it only SELECTIVELY CHAMPIONS the cause of transparency. Better would be if the Liberal Party under Ignatieff were to begin to apply the concept of transparency on a consistent and universal basis.

Every time I see one of Ujjal Dosangh. Bob Rae, Micahel Ignatieff, Daniel Leblanc or some other Liberal pontificate about the need for transparency on this Aghan detainee issue and mount their high horse of moral rectitude and sanctimonious indignation, I am reminded of how hypocritical they are being by completely letting down ALL CANADIAN TAXPAYERS by not revealing the patent falsehoods of Harper allegation that income trusts cause tax leakage, which was the very central premise on which his income trust tax policy was based. A policy that has seen the wholesale foreign takeover of Canadian businesses, which left unaddressed will lead to the loss of $7.5 billion in annual tax revenue.

Enough with the sham democracies that rule this country, be they Liberal or Conservative, They are all shams of one form or another, as they attempt to mislead Canadians at large on bahalf of the narrow vested interests that pull both party’s strings.

It is clear from the Liberal’s total disinterest in the truth (ie patent lies) about tax leakage who they are really working for. And its certainly not the 33 million Canadian taxpayers and citizens of this country. That much is abundantly transparent from their total disinterest in revealing that patent falsehood that is being disguised by Harper’s 18 pages of blacked out tax leakage documents. Torture is more the Liberal’s cup of tea than restoring the $35 billion in retirement savings that Canadians lost on the basis of a complete lie.

Meanwhile, if we only have the political opportunism of the Liberals to rely on concerning the matter of transparency, does it not occur to the Liberals that a trend can not be established from a single data point, and that trends require at least two data points to have any meaning? Even Ujjal Dosangh expressed concerns that some Canadians will fall victim to the Conservative’s argument that most Canadians don’t care whether one Afghan tortures another Afghan. This may well be true for many of the mindless people who vote for Harper, so the appeal needs to be made on the higher level of transparency. To do that, require other example beyond merely the Afghan detainee issue. No better example of that exists than Harper’s use of blacked out documents in the case his tax leakage lie. When will the Liberal ever understand that they have to appeal to the vast masses, of they ever hope to succeed in forming the next government, as indicated by the results of the following Angus Reid survey:

- Four out of five Canadians say the federal government should publicly
release the data and methodology it used to estimate the amount of tax
loss caused by income trusts.

- Only one out of 20 Canadians feel that Finance Minister Flaherty's
proposed income trust legislation will strengthen Canada's social security system
for seniors and pensioners.

- Nearly nine out of 10 Canadians say it is difficult to provide for
themselves with sufficient income when they retire, given today's low
interest rate environment.

- Only one in five Canadians believe Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's
proposal for changing the tax rate on income trusts would level the
playing field.

- The resounding majority of Canadians say Finance Minister Flaherty's
proposed tax legislation is unfair to Canadians who hold income trusts
in their RRSPs.

- Finance Minister Flaherty calls his proposed legislation "tax
fairness," but two-thirds of Canadians disagree.

- Only one out of 20 Canadians feel that Finance Minister Flaherty's
proposed legislation will strengthen Canada's social security system
for seniors and pensioners.

- A majority of Canadians say it was wrong for Prime Minister Stephen
Harper to break his election promise not to introduce new taxes on
income trusts.

The Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors (www.caiti.info)
commissioned a poll to test Canadian's level of support for this new tax and
the foundations on which it is based. From March 13 to March 15, 2007, Angus
Reid Strategies conducted a survey of 1138 randomly selected and
representative adult Canadians. The margin of error for the survey was +/-
2.9%, 19 times out of 20.