Back to the Future?

No matter what your opinion of former PM Paul Martin is, his passion for Aboriginal Affairs in this country cannot be disputed.

I watched him, (with Ralph Goodale and Andy Scott), testify at a Senate committee this morning. It was fascinating to look back at the Kelowna Accord and realise the damage that has been done by the Con's having scrapped it.

In fact it reminded me of just how much damage this government really has done to the country over the past 2 years, but that's another post.

Today, I read this and after having seen Paul Martin speak to the issue versus what I read, it's clear that the current government has now drifted beyond hypocrisy and if there is a word for that outside of liar, I'd be happy to use it.

What was really striking in Martin's comments was the comparison of what the Con's propose in terms of expenditure between 2006-2010 and what Kelowna would have accomplished. I'll keep it to education, which in my view is maybe the most important component. Kelowna, working with the provinces and territories, allocated 1 billion, 251 million. The Con's? 171 million. Can you see the difference?

It's striking to me that those who rail against the Kelowna Accord do not understand how much of a step forward it was. It put power into the hands of leaders who had a vested interest in moving forward. They were part of the process and made commitments. Imagine that. We gave the stakeholders a voice. What our current government has done is go back in time to the old 'we know best' system that undoubtedly is causing problems. They have a ton of announcements, but really they are still the director and therefore countenance discrimination.

Here's the vid if you haven't seen it. Charlie's heart is in the right place, but he conveniently omits that the NDP voted the Accord down. You'll notice that kid's had been promised schools for 8 years, then they finally had hope. He fails to include why. Kelowna was the hope.



For the record. Jim Prentice, the first Con Minister on this file was at the Kelowna signing. He agreed with it.

I wonder why he was moved to another file?