Fisherman's Road

The following played on CBC Radio on Friday, Jan. 29, in response to a commentary earlier in the week by Bob Wakeham … My name is Ryan Cleary and I’m calling from St. John’s. I’d like to comment on Bob Wakeham’s commentary on Tuesday’s Morning Show. Wakeham’s topic was Bill Murray — the former bureaucrat at the centre of the House of Assembly spending scandal — and how he pleaded guilty on Tuesday to four of seven charges against him. With Bill Murray’s confirmation that’s he’s a crook, as Wakeham put it, there’s not much of any entrails left to that rotting corpse known as the spending scandal. I disagree. I think a good part of the spending scandal story has never been told — and will never BE told. Was Bill Murray the bureaucratic criminal mastermind who engineered the changes in the House of Assembly that led to the legislative rot? To the scandal we’re still going through? I don’t think so. Not a single politician — not a single member of various internal economy commissions —

Jan. 16th letter to Telegram editor As an aspiring politician, I often shake my head at what I'm getting into. Democracy in Canada is in shambles. On the federal front, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to pull the plug on Parliament is a blatant partisan move to sidestep the controversy generated by hearings into Canada's role in Afghanistan - more specifically, the alleged torture of Afghan detainees transferred by the Canadian military to Afghan authorities. So much for the truth - it's Conservatives first, democracy be damned. What must the world think of us? Earlier this week, Harper said financial markets are concerned about the stability of a minority government, claiming proroguing avoids instability. But isn't that the same as saying that suspending democracy avoids instability? Why not just trade in the Maple Leaf for a hammer and sickle? Closer to home, it was only last month that the federal Conservatives approved a renegotiated convention for th