NDP want watchdog to oversee Tory appointments

Interim New Democratic Party leader Nycole Turmel speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa December 15, 2011.

The Vancouver Sun:

The Conservatives have handed patronage appointments to about a dozen people with ties to the party in the last month, leading the Opposition NDP to demand the government bring in an independent watchdog to oversee all appointments.

With the appointments this week, NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said it's time the government use the apparatus it developed five years ago and fill it with someone who will independently oversee all patronage appointments.

"This government told the Canadian people that they were going to do business differently," Angus said.

"What I find really galling is they wait until Parliament rises so there's no scrutiny. . . . That's not accountable government."

This month, the federal government announced appointments of about a dozen people who were either failed candidates in the last election, or have ties — financial or familial — to the party.

Former Conservative minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn will head to Paris to represent Canada at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Blackburn lost his seat in Quebec in the May election.

According to the Privy Council Office database, Blackburn will earn an annual salary of up to $195,300.

Like Blackburn, Bernard Genereux lost his Quebec seat in May. The government named Genereux to be the federal representative on the Quebec Port Authority.

Three other Tory candidates who failed to get elected in May also received appointments. Rejean Beriault, Jean-Phillipe Bachand, and Pierre Lafontaine all received three-year appointments to the employment insurance board of referees in their home towns.

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