Demonstrated Cluelessness

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Stephen Harper has just released the "What He'd Do To Clean Up Government" plan.

Superficially, it doesn't sound all bad:

The three main planks of Harper's proposed accountability act are:

* Eliminating all remaining corporate and union donations to federal political parties, and restricting individual donations to $1,000 per person.
* Banning all ministers and their political aides from becoming government lobbyists for at least five years from the date they leave their political positions.
* Giving the auditor general the power to "follow the money to the end recipients" as she or he undertakes a review of the $30 billion handed out each year in the form of federal grants, contributions and contracts.

Except that none of those are the problem areas. This does exactly nothing to ensure that the senior civil servants are appropriately managed; it does nothing to shuffle people within the civil service so that they do not become overly entrenched in a role. Look at who has been fingered as a result of the Gomery Report - beside Chretien, all the rest of them are senior bureaucrats and people in industry.

The only thing that Harper has done is address some of the blatant garbage that goes on in Alberta (E.g. Rod Love - who alternates roles between Klein's Chief-of-Stiff and Industry-Lobbyist depending on what day of the week it is.)

Did Harper read the same Gomery Report that the rest of us saw? Or was there the special "Stephen Harper Autographed Fantasy Edition" that only he got?!