The Ottawa Sun, November 19, 2000, Sunday, Pg. C1,  EDITORIAL

HEADLINE: 'THE USUAL OPERATION'

BYLINE: OTTAWA SUN

    Voters are beginning to see the real choices in this federal election
campaign.

    Some of those choices are represented by parties that barely register
above the water line of public opinion -- the NDP and the Tories.

    For most voters though, the choice appears to be between the Chretien
government and the upstart Canadian Alliance under Stockwell Day.

      Actually, based on the issues that have dominated the campaign in
recent days, the choice appears to be between a leader who believes that
man once walked among the dinosaurs and a veteran political dinosaur in
his own right who happens to believe there is nothing wrong in "the usual
operation" of twisting the arm of the Business Development Bank to secure
a fat loan for a buddy in his riding.

    So whose values are really on trial here? More important, whose should

be?

    By most estimates, it's Day who is under fire. His religious
convictions, which he has consistently refused to drag into the campaign,
have nonetheless become a source of great mockery by Liberals.

    To them, Day is dangerous because, when he goes to church on Sundays,
he happens to challenge -- incorrectly, in our books, but who cares? --
scientific theories about man's arrival on this planet.

    Goodness. To what levels would the Liberals have stooped had they
faced an opponent of another religious background. We shudder at the
thought.

    Now, that might be unfair. It's perfectly possible that Liberals only
think the convictions of Pentecostals are fair game for mockery and
ridicule.

    While we strongly disagree with Day's position on creationism, we're
not entirely sure exactly how such convictions would influence the
operations of a Canadian Alliance government, except to quote him as
saying, repeatedly, that they wouldn't.

    We do know, however, in which direction the prime minister's own moral

compass points and exactly how that influences his manner of governing. We
know because he too has told us so.

    Chretien sees nothing wrong with directly interfering in the awarding
of government loans, even under the most conflict-ridden circumstances.
Heck, it's "the usual operation," he admits.

    The "usual operation," includes making at least two calls to the
president of the crown corporation and at least one meeting to discuss the
status of a $615,000 loan to his friend Yvon Duhaime, owner of the
Grand-Mere Inn, a facility Chretien once owned in part.

    Call us wide-eyed political purists, but we happen to think that such
a blatant and ultimately successful attempt to interfere in the decisions
of a crown agency -- by the prime minister no less -- is morally and
ethically reprehensible.

    So, if morals have become the standard by which we can fairly judge
our leaders, why then is the prime minister about to sail back into office
with a third majority? Maybe it's a miracle.