Conservatives - Better Government Through Secrecy

For a party that campaigned on more open, accountable government, the Conservatives are doing everything they can to dispel the mythconception that they meant what they said.

In the name of "national security", the Conservatives have ditched normal government procurement rules in favour of an ad-hoc and secretive method of awarding the contracts for some $8 Billion (Cdn) worth of military spending.

So, not only are these contracts being awarded without any kind of bidding process (as is normally required for government spending), taxpayers will be virtually unable to examine these expenditures until long after Stephen Harper has been excised from government.

In a climate where Canadians are rightly skeptical of government spending, another program that goes underground doesn't seem like particularly good policy - especially when its so obvious that we won't be able to "follow the dollar" without tripping over "security exemptions" left right and center.

This is "more open, accountable government" how? (I really wonder how many Canadian taxpayer dollars are going to land up in the hands of Halliburton, or other companies controlled by BushCo...)