Clement (Harper) 'compromises' on census

"Two-Tier" Tony Clement. Mr. Ambitious. After losing 3 elections and a couple of leadership battles (I wanna be Premier. I wanna be PM), the average politician would have given up by now. But not Tony. He ran in Parry Sound of all places - Ernie Eves' former riding - and he won in a 28-vote landslide.

So just who is Tony Clement? Starting with the official bio and Wikipedia [5]:

Anthony Peter "Tony" Clement, PC (born January 27, 1961 in Manchester, England) is a conservative Canadian politician. He was a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada after its formation from the merger of the old Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties in 2004, but lost to Stephen Harper. In May 2005, Clement won the Conservative nomination to run in Parry Sound—Muskoka in the 2006 federal election, against incumbent Liberal cabinet minister Andy Mitchell. Clement narrowly defeated Mitchell, winning by only 28 votes. He was appointed as the Minister of Health, the same position he held late in the Mike Harris and Ernie Eves governments in Ontario.

Tony started out in student politics at the University of Toronto. A champion debater, Clement was instrumental in inviting South African Ambassador Glen Babb to a U of T debate in 1985 on the topic of ending sanctions against the racist, South African apartheid state - the only known debate in the House’s 81-year history to end without a vote [6]. Clement, needless to say, opposed sanctions.

A fan of Margaret Thatcher, Clement graduated as a lawyer in 1986. Four short years later, he became president of the Ontario Conservative Party. He teamed up with Mike Harris around the same time that the Whiz Kids [7]were taking over the Young Conservatives. It was they who essentially recruited Mike Harris to lead the party and pave the way for the 1995 Common Sense Revolution campaign [8]in which Clement was first elected. (As an aside, the Reform Party agreed not to run candidates in Ontario in recognition that Harris would carry out a neo-con agenda. Clement returned the favour [9]by helping legitimize Preston Manning's 1998 United Alternative effort to bring the right-wing back under one tent. )

So, in 1995, Clement was first elected as an Ontario MPP. He served in various., progressively more responsible, capacities in the Harris government.

Minister
Transportation - 1997 - 1999
- built the "Mike Harris" highway [10]to North Bay
- promised, but didn't deliver on a Hwy 410 extension [11]in his own riding
- downloaded highways [12]from the province to municipalities
- at the same time record amounts were poured into building more highways, provincial funding for public transit was slashed to the bone causing increases in greenhouse gas emissions [13]
- expanded the Highway 407 [14]toll highway

Environment: 1999 - 2000

Tony blew his opportunity to close the loopholes in hazardous waste laws [15] resulting in lots of illegal dumping and leaking [16] like at Safety-Kleen which was allowed to monitor itself. He also was involved in closing provincial testing labs [17].

Hazardous wastes imported into Ontario from the United States quintupled from
56,000 tonnes in 1993 to 288,000 tonnes in 1998, the latest year for which
statistics are available.

Allowed developers to encroach on environmentally sensitive land [18]on the Oak Ridges Morain.

Municipal Affairs and Housing: 2000 - 2001
- in true Harris style, ramrodded responsibilities for social housing onto municipalities without full province-wide hearings [19] .

The honourable member tries to draw a picture here of secret meetings... There's nothing secret about it if you know about it. I can assure you they're not secret.... We are having these consultations. We've had them in the past, we have in the present and we will have them in the future.

- here's Clement's "report card" [20] from the Parkdale Community Legal Services
- Clement enforced the "Tenant Protection Act [21]" which was written for landlords in order to kill rent control and make it easier to evict tenants

Health and Long-Term Care: 2001 - 2003
- Clement's cat [22] who paved the way for 25 private MRI and CT scan clinics [23]
- paid a private clinic $12 million [23]to subsidize their profits and they closed anyway
- Clement is accused by Howard Hampton of tendering contracts for two "P3" hospitals to firms which contributed to his campaigns [24] and to the Conservative Party. Ontario's ethics commissioner found no evidence of wrongdoing.
- Clement, with colleagues, continue to take actions that increase greenhouse gas emissions [25]
- despite the Walkerton Inquiry conclusions, Clement maintains that the extreme cuts to water testing wouldn't have made a difference [26]in the deaths of 7 people.

Also in the wake of Walkerton, Clement laid off 5 biohazard scientists [27]including the guy who pinpointed the deadly e-coli strain.

Some might say that perhaps the only feather in Clement's hat came from his handling of the SARS crisis in 2003. However, he "inherited" the problem of his own government firing thousands of nurses who Mike Harris likened to hula hoops [28]. As well, he set up a program that gave double-pay [28]to nurses and others in SARS units but did nothing for thousands of other health-care workers at risk. And at the same time the nursing shortage was at its most acute, even more nurses were laid DURING the SARS crisis [29]. To boot, SARS Commission Interim Report pointed out that Ontario did not have a pandemic plan in place despite efforts by the Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases [30]to put pressure on Clement.

Medical officers of health are trying to develop local pandemic influenza response plans but there work is hindered without a provincial plan and leadership. (page 53/54)

Clement's response?

Mr. Clement said he had no knowledge of any concern about the lack of a pandemic flu plan and that the letter would not normally come to his attention...

Typical neo-con "pass the buck", "how was I supposed to know?" answer.

Committees
Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly
Clement was the mover and shaker of the retrograde Taxpayer Protection Act. [31]

On May 30, 1995, Mike Harris pledged to support taxpayer protection legislation that will "make any increase in existing tax rates or any new taxes, subject to approval by the voters of Ontario in a binding referendum."

Member, Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills
Member, Standing Committee on Estimates

Other stuff

Clement's 7-point ehics proposal [32]when he was running against Harper for the leader's job. Gordon O'Connor anyone?

5. A full review of tendering process for all government
contracts including clear conflict guidelines for awarding of government
contracts.

On the abortion issue [33], Clement is a so-called moderate.

"I'm probably about a 6 or 7 out of 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 on pro-life,
pro-choice," he said in response the questions, explaining that 10 would be
pro-life and 1 pro-choice.

So it looks like Harper's choice of Clement may be meant to allay the fears of pro-choice voters who the conservatives need to win over if wants to gain a majority government next time around.

In 1997, he presented a petition to end the spring bear hunt [34]from his Brampton constituents an issue which his opponents in Parry Sound were probably unaware of (coulda made the difference!!) .