“Never mind what we say. Watch what we do.” — Richard Nixon

And so we’re watching Paul Martin, and what he does, as his broom sweeps Ottawa clean in preparation for governance of this country according to Paul Martin. Martin has lusted after power, often in very public and unseemly fashion, for some time, often seeming to take his methodology from those who did in Julius Caesar.

Some people have suggested his unrelenting pursuit of the top job stemmed from a familial commitment to avenge the defeat of the father in his race for the leadership of all the Liberals against Pierre Elliott Trudeau. But that motivation hardly has credence when you consider that the son took the father’s name off the prow of the ocean-going vessel as part of an exercise in avoiding Canadian taxes, while setting up shop for his shipping company in Barbados.

Martin did this while — as Minister of Finance — he arranged a tax treaty with the Barbadian government that put millions into his corporate pocket. At the same time he was slaying the deficit dragon by ripping off Canadian workersâe(TM) and employersâe(TM) payments to the unemployment insurance fund.

Among other things, Martin promises to clean up the bad old ethics of the Jean Chrétien era in governance. If you believe in the old theory about using a thief to catch a thief, he may be just the guy to do the job. He certainly has scouted the territory well.

In any case, according to Ottawa pundits, Martin and his gang have successfully set Ottawa on its ear in his first few weeks. Martin loyalists have been rewarded. Others, who exercised their democratic rights of free speech, have been punished.

In other words, despite Martin’s keenings about a new era bringing democracy back into Parliament, his actions seem to be more modelled on the famous Brian Mulroney dictum of, “dancing with the one what brung ya. . .”

Meanwhile, he freezes everything in sight, bringing the operations of government to a near halt, stopping all projects costing more than $5 million, and freezing the salaries of mid-level civil servants and those under them.

But not the favoured few — the senior paid political staff attached to each of the many ministries. To them, he gave raises amounting to 30 per cent, making them higher-paid servants of the people than the Members of Parliament we elect to run the country.

Now we are not talking here about a coterie of Bob Cratchits, slaving away with misguided altruism to serve the country and its taxpayers — underpaid and underfed, driving beat-up old wrecks that are a menace to anyone else on the road.

No siree bob, not at all. We are, in fact, talking about cats what lived well off the fat of the land, already topping the $100,000 mark in compensation, along with all the perks of high office. As a result of Martin’s munificent and profligate distribution of the taxpayers’ money, these gents and ladies will now take home $147,300 a year, up from their measly $114,500 per annum.

Tough sledding, eh what?!

The message is clear:

  • be loyal to Paul Martin and he will place you in a ministry and pay you well from the public purse
  • the Prime Ministerâe(TM)s Office political control of the ministries will increase, not lessen, in the Paul Martin era. That means the unelected appointees of Paul Martin will be in actual control of the country to a greater extent than ever before.

So much for giving elected Members of Parliament a greater and more effective voice in the administration of the country.

The best idea about the Ottawa establishment that I have heard in this New Year came from one of Martin’s discards, P.E.I.’s ever-effervescent Wayne Easter, scourge of the upper levels of the civil service. No yes man, he.

It was his recommendation that the 1,000 or so bureaucrats working for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Ottawa should move operations closer to what it is they are trying — with decidedly mixed results — to administer: the oceans east and west.

Easter observed with a wry sense of humour, “There aren’t any fish in the Rideau Canal.”

Not that this would matter a rat’s ass as far as the DFO bureaucracy was concerned. Long after its policies cleanse the sea of anything edible, it would still be happily functioning, and happier because there would not be any fishermen around to bitch and whine .

The word out of Ottawa now seems to be that the New Democrats, with Mr. Integrity (aka Ed Broadbent) in tow, will be the chief beneficiaries — politically speaking — of a government headed by Paul Martin already displaying a distinct list to starboard.

The theory goes that displaced Red Tories who cannot vote for the new Conservative party and cannot vote Liberal while that party is being run by a conservative like Paul Martin, will park votes with the NDP. They’ll be joined by small “l” liberals left behind with no place left to go after Martin has moved their party so strongly to the right.

Our new P.M.’s strategy seems obvious: talk like an old fashioned liberal with a concern for society; act like a new fangled conservative determined to reward big business. In other words, become a northern version of George Bush.

In the United States of America, Republicans talk small government, but embrace big government when it is to the advantage of corporate America. Modern Republicanism under Bush has consistently relaxed or abolished regulatory restraints on corporate America while it is ready to increase the regulation of the citizenry in social matters.

In Canada, this same philosophy translates into a freeze on public services combined with billion dollar tax cuts for corporate Canada: in other words, big government for people, but as little government as can be gotten away with, for corporations.

It’s a funny way to run a democracy!