Somebody gets it

For the last week or so, federal cabinet ministers have been standing up in the Commons to confess that they've availed themselves of the hospitality of the Irving family. Some have hitched rides on the corporate jet, while others have spent a day or two at a lavish fishing retreat. When opposition MPs have criticised this behaviour Chrétien has fallen back on "the process", saying that these activities have been examined and blessed by the ethics counsellor and that there's no scandal here.

In a column in the Globe and Mail, John Ibbitson nailed it quite nicely.

This is as much a case of class conflict as of conflict of interest. There is nothing unusual in such behaviour in the corporate world. Sales representatives invite purchasing agents to enjoy the hockey game from the corporate box. Executives fly other executives to Miami in February for meetings, even though their respective head offices are mere blocks apart.

You've never done such things? Really? You've never even taken a client out to lunch?

To those who are not courted by corporate executives, who do not get invitations to lunch, such schmoozing grates. It proves to them that the playing field is not level. They're right.

It also proves that the Chrétien government, a decade on, has become so clubby that its senior members have forgotten about optics, about how ordinary constituents feel when politicians cavort with the corporate elite.

To excuse this on the basis that the ministers involved had no direct influence on legislation or contracts that might affect the Irving businesses is to insult the public. Claiming compliance with the mere "letter of the law" isn't good enough. We know how crony capitalism works and this only fuels the cynicism so many of us already feel about the political process and, in particular, the perception that corporate interests already influence that process to a disproportionate degree.

Ibbitson goes on to suggest that this little soap opera will make it easier for the soon-to-be-crowned King Paul I. He can clean house and stack the cabinet with his own people and earn brownie points with the electorate in the bargain because he's installing fresh faces that are free of the taint of corruption. Let's hope King Paul doesn't think that alone goes far enough.