Mike Colle

So Mike Colle has resigned and the provincial auditor found he was not corrupt or dishonet but he was lousy at process.

Thank heavens for that. I'm fed up to the teeth with dishonest, lying, amoral politicians. We have more than enough of them and it's good to know Colle isn't one of them.

Mike isn't the sharpest mind at QP, by a country mile. But he is a decent man who has served his community honorably for many years. He turned out to be a much better minister than many thought he would be and he deserves A+++ for his efforts to get the professional credentials of foreign trained immigrants recognized in Canada. That was long overdue and is a very good piece of legislation and Mike Colle is the guy who did it.

Mike is of that generation that thinks process refers to dreadful prepackaged cheese. I can see him sitting in his office, his sleeves rolled up, looking through all the applications for the funds he had available through the ministry to dole out, and very seriously trying to ensure it went to community organizations that would use it wisely and for the greater good. I can see it but you want to slap him upside the head and say "Mike, what the hell are ya doing lad? You can't give away the peoples' money like this!!"

Mike's real crime? He didn't have his ministry prepare a 30-page application that would take two lawyers and three accountants four days to complete, and that would require affadavits attesting to the good behaviour of everyone in the organization. Then everyone would have to wait for 8 months while civil servants poured over all of the applications, then sent 50% back because they had five missing commas and six spelling mistakes.

The auditor general has gone out of his way to say there was absolutely no proof of any wrong doing by anyone but there sure as hell was one crazy screwed up process in place, which can't be tolerated.

OK - Mike has resigned as minister. It was the right thing to do and he did it. The premier has apologized to the people of Ontario for the error and said it won't happen again. The people of Eglinton Lawrence will decide whether Mike should live to fight again.

That works for me. If we are going to hang a politician everytime they have a brain camp or do something silly, we'll be outta them within about two months. So I am not gonna get bent out of shape when there's dumbness but not corruptness, to coin a word.

And as for the Tories bellowing away about there being Liberals on some of the executives of these groups, the answer is "yeah, and...? When's the last time you saw a Tory give a shit about inner city problems or get down and dirty and actually work to help those who need a hand?" Mike Harris and Ernie Eves were all about gated communities and privilege for themselves - remember the $1 million payout they each got when they "converted" the old pension plan for MPPs, at the same time the Yak was telling welfare recipients there was nothing wrong with baloney? John Tory may be different - we'll see. But you'll excuse me if I have trouble seeing Bob Runciman or Frank Klees or Randy Hillier working hands on with groups in the ghettos and the dreadful hi rises of northern Etobicoke and St. James Town and the Peanut and Malvern. So the argument about Liberals being on these executives makes a lot of sense - that's what they do and the Tories don't.

Interesting point in closing - neither Colle or McGuinty even hinted at any blame on the part of ministry staff. But where the hell was the deputy and the senior ministry staff in all of this? Someone had to cut the cheques and process the paper work and it sure as hell wasn't done by Mike or his staff. So who was giving him advice? Just asking.