The Canadian Press:Conservative cabinet ministers got to play Santa Claus over the last week, handing out patronage posts to at least a dozen people with Tory ties.
The recipients included failed candidates, ex-caucus members, members of Conservative riding executives and long-time party faithful. While in power, the Liberals also made a habit of naming party stalwarts to federal boards.
Three other failed 2011 Conservative candidates from Quebec have also won appointments as referees on Employment Insurance claims: Jean-Philippe Bachand, Réjean Bériault and Pierre Lafontaine. Former Brantford, Ont. business executive Rick Sterne was also named to this board – he was a Tory candidate in 1984.
Leah Costello, a Vancouver-area filmmaker, event planner and Conservative riding association member, was named a member of the National Council of Welfare. On her blog last March, Ms. Costello lauded a book that criticized Canada's “culture of entitlement.”
NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus condemned the latest wave of appointments.
“For the Harper Conservatives, there's no better time to announce the appointment of failed candidates, Conservative donors and well-connected insiders to plum, taxpayer-funded gigs than after the House of Commons has risen and in the final days before Christmas,” Angus said in a statement on Wednesday.
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