PING!
Posted on 12/05/2006 5:13:48 PM PST by GMMAC
Canada's image scarred by sponsorship scandal
ROMA LUCIW
Globe and Mail
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Canada failed to crack the top 10 list of countries perceived to be the least corrupt, according to the results of a new international survey that suggests the sponsorship scandal has scarred our squeaky-clean image. The inaugural Gallup Worldwide Corruption Index found that Canada ranked 15th, right behind Uruguay and Vietnam but just ahead of the Netherlands and Belgium. Canadians gave themselves high marks on everything from the economy to health to law and order, but a failing grade on the nation's leadership, which gauges a population's confidence and satisfaction with social institutions.
"These results are based solely on public opinion data, not on expert evaluations," said Steve Crabtree, an analyst with Gallup. "It is the subjective perception of that population at that point in time."
A majority of Canadians surveyed by Gallup said they believed corruption was widespread throughout the national government.
The survey was conducted during the eight-weeks campaign prior to the January 2006 election, which saw Conservative Stephen Harper defeat ruling Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin amid voter anger with the sponsorship scandal. Designed to bolster the visibility of the federal government in Quebec after the 1995 referendum, the sponsorship program funnelled millions of dollars in contracts to a handful of Liberal-friendly advertising and media firms.
"The highly publicized AdScam scandal, in which investigation revealed corruption and misdirection of public funds in government advertising, prompted two special elections and marred Martin's administration, although he was explicitly cleared of any involvement," the Gallup report said. "However, it may partly explain why 57 per cent of Canadians feel say corruption is widespread throughout the government."
The United States ranked 19th on the least corrupt scale, a result Mr. Crabtree attributed to American perceptions that domestic corruption and scandal are on the rise. Voter anger over the resignation of Republican Representative Mark Foley after he sent sexually suggestive computer messages to young Congressional pages was in part what helped defeat U.S. President George W. Bush's Republican party in midterm elections last month.
Finland was the least corrupt country on the Gallup poll, followed by Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
On the other end of the scale, Lithuania emerged as the country perceived to be most corrupt, followed by Poland, Lebanon, Thailand, Cameroon, Ukraine and Russia. Nigeria, an African country with rampant corruption, ranked 75 out of 101 countries.
Mr. Crabtree said that people have different frames of reference and varying definitions of corruption. "In some countries, corruption is so endemic in the society that what we would consider corrupt in Canada and the U.S might not be there." He pointed to a recent poll that said 44 per cent of Russians consider some form of bribing acceptable.
Poland, which joined the European Union in 2004, was ranked as the second most corrupt country by its own citizens. Residents of the Eastern European country were polled in July, shortly before they voted to replace a scandal-plagued left-leaning government. Poles expressed dissatisfaction with their leadership, with 89 per cent saying they believed corruption was widespread in the national government. Economics, high levels of unemployment and a lack of confidence in their local police force were other problems mentioned by Polish respondents.
The Gallup corruption index was based on responses from adults in 101 countries. Over the course of the last year, respondents were asked two questions: Is corruption widespread throughout the government in your country? Is corruption widespread within businesses located in your country?
Mr. Crabtree said that Gallup plans to track the results over time. In the future, it might rank countries based on the amount of progress they have made in terms of fighting corruption.
Endemic and institutional corruption impedes a country's stability and growth, making it difficult for countries to tap into much-needed foreign investment and aid opportunities, Gallup said. It also has a huge effect on the people living in these countries, diminishing their in their leaders, reduces their incentive to work hard, and making entrepreneurial efforts and civic engagement less likely.
Not surprisingly, the Gallup survey found higher levels of confidence and optimism among countries that were less corrupt, and vice versa.
Among the top 10 countries on the list, 55 per cent of residents said they had confidence in the country's leadership, compared with 32 per cent in the bottom ten countries.
A vast majority — 84 per cent — of respondents in the least corrupt countries said people are able to get ahead by working hard. That number dropped to 58 per cent among the most corrupt countries. Levels of corruption also had a strong impact on respondents' sense of their personal freedom, with 92 per cent in the least corrupt countries saying they were satisfied with their freedom to choose what to do with their lives, compared with 65 per cent in the bottom countries.
In October, a Transparency International poll of more than 11,000 business people in 125 countries looked at how companies from the top 30 exporting countries do business abroad and which ones are most likely to bribe.
Switzerland, Sweden, Australia and Austria topped the ranking of the 2006 bribe payers index, meaning companies from there were least likely to make bribes, while Canada came in fifth. At the other end of the corruption spectrum, India, China, Russia, Turkey and Taiwan were the exporting countries that were most likely to offer bribes when doing business abroad.
PING!
So, Canada has changed her national flag. Maybe it's time to change her national motto.
"Canada: Just a cut behind Vietnam."
Just a joke, eh? Besides which, this is the Canadian Liberal Party people are talking about. Delayed release of what people think about them.
After electing bill clinton twice, the U.S. deserves to be a cut behind Vietnam, too, until we have finished thoroughly cleansing ourselves.
Apparently Celine et Stephane really are related.
(click on image for details: sorry, only en Francaise)
Distant cousinage, is it? They certainly look like they were made for each other.
After reading the article, I have one question:
Who, exactly, pays Gallup for crap like this?
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