Clean government rhetoric contrasts with reality.

This is from the Harper Index. This article lists some of the less than cleans aspects of the Harper government. I wonder if the Liberals are going to spend all their time moaning about Conservative dirt while passing all the Conservative dirty laundy of bills through the house?

"Clean government": rhetoric contrasts with record

Throne speech glosses over government's lapses and embarrassments.

OTTAWA, October 17, 2007: Last night's throne speech surprised commentators with its highly-partisan claim "The government is clean." Pundits were surprised that in a speech usually meant to outline government direction, Stephen Harper would stoop to attacking his Liberal predecessors with this indirect slur.

HarperIndex.ca began publishing in May. We thought it might be instructive to compare the claim of clean government with stories we have tracked since then. Here are some indexed links, with comments, that call into questions this claim:

"Aspirational goals" for greenhouse gas reduction invite ridicule. Despite rhetoric used domestically, Canada and Harper are drawing mockery internationally for attempts to undermine the Kyoto agreement on fighting climate change and evade commitments Canada made under it.

Agents provocateurs active at Montebello? Although not directly implicated yet, it is difficult to believe the Prime Minister's Office was not involved in police infiltration and agitation at the Montebello Summit in August.

Arar report censorship meant to protect American security establishment. It is probable that decision-making in the cover-up of the RCMP's role in the Arar affair went right to the top as at previous international summits.

Blocking public documents has become a pattern. The Harper government has been secretive and evasive about human rights questions concerning Mahar Arar and other Canadians erroneously identified as terrorists and tortured in the Middle East.

Judges and Stephen Harper. After years of complaining about rulings by Liberal-appointed judges, Harper is stacking Canada's courts with appointments who reflect his ideology.

Minority government: Harper shows contempt for compromise by changing the rules. In opposition, Stephen Harper derided the then-minority-Liberal government for its disdain of other parties and parliamentary tradition. Since being elected, the Conservatives have rejected the tradition of minority governments working with the opposition and compromising through the committee process.

Patronage and employment programs. The government is stacking boards, agencies and commissions with ideological loyalists while stalling on setting up the accountability mechanisms it promised in opposition to prevent this.

Political interference charges dog Conservatives. Elections Canada is investigating the Conservative Party for possible accounting fraud over "in-and-out" local campaign financing used to bill the federal government for subsidies. Charges that the Harper government interfered in last year's Ottawa municipal election are still before the courts.

Privatizing federal buildings a "sweet deal" for new owners. In August the government announced the sale of nine federal properties it will have to lease back from private owners. PSAC calls it "a give-away of colossal proportion" that has, "in effect, written a $630 million cheque signed by Canadian taxpayers."