Conservatives are engaged in a tawdry game of your money, their re-election.

Call it cheque-gate or promogate but when a normally Conservative-friendly columnist starts writing about your shiny tory-blue party in an objectively negative way, clearly something is wrong.

"In the pursuit of unethical equivalency, all smarmy activity done by this government can be justified as having its genesis in previous administrations. Little wonder the public is so cynical about Ottawa. The changing of the government guard is nothing more than new dogs learning old tricks."

"The partisan handouts are just the latest game played with your tax dollars by a government that promised to do things differently. It has blanketed the airwaves with government-promotion ads at a pace six times the rate of any H1N1 public education blitz." October 16 2009 - Don Martin, National Post

Hundreds of images of Conservative MPs and Conservative cabinet ministers are showing up all over the internet this week depicting smiling Conservative partisans handing over cheques - your taxpayer dollars - which inappropriately carry either the Conservative Party logo, or the signature of the MP, or their boss Stephen Harper. These people do not sign Government of Canada cheques.

Back in July Susan Delacourt exposed in a Star article what might be called Promogate. Yet today Stephen Harper meanwhile maintains that the inappropriate and highly partisan marketing of what should be non-partisan efforts on behalf of the Government of Canada was an isolated act by Gerald Keddy.

Not so. Keddy also maintains that he doesn't even remember signing the fraudulent cheque/sign.

Here is Minister of Finance caught in the act of signing one of the partisan marketing cheques:

Not only is Gerald Keddy breaking the rules but so are dozens of other Conservative MP's and Conservative cabinet ministers. In this growing flickr photostream alone there almost 200 images of Conservative cabinet ministers and MPs breaking the public trust.

Here's the forgettable Tony Clement who was Minister of Health at the time of this mug shot:

Or how about a junior player, Minister of State (Science & Technology) Gary Goodyear flaunting a cheque which unabashedly includes the Conservative Party slogan, more than once.

Goodyear's actions are a misdemeanor compared to serial offender Cheryl Gallant who signs fraudulent Government of Canada cheques in her own name over and over (and over - note the Olympic logo / Conservative logo conspiracy/inspiration in the background in that last link) again.

Backbencher Barry Devolin, Conservative MP for Haliburton--Kawartha Lakes--Brock, perhaps is the most profligate offender of the rules. His shiny face appears in dozens of inappropriate cheque presentation photos. Shame on you Barry. As a former Reform party stalwart you used to pledge to do politics differently but near as I can tell you have reinterpreted that to mean do politics that benefit Barry Devolin.

Minister of Environment Jim Prentice, once described as Harper's right hand man, was caught in the act this summer passing out road sign-sized cheques bearing his signature, as was his predecessor, the totally inept former Minister of Environment Rona Ambrose.

Flaunting and Breaking the rules

Beyond being ethically wrong to tie government funding closely to partisan activities, what rules have been broken?

The Government of Canada has what is known as the Federal Identity Program, or FIP, which lays out when and how communications to the public should be made. FIP governs what should appropriately be the non-partisan "marketing" of our government to Canadians and the world at large. (FIP Manual - PDF)

As noted in the policy overview section Fields of Application, signage (a huge cheque is a sign) must adhere to FIP prescriptions, as must everything from advertising to stationary.

Institutions must ensure that an appropriate corporate signature and the "Canada" wordmark are applied wherever an activity of the federal government is to be made known in Canada and abroad. This means the identification of products, material, equipment and real property. The fields of application include: stationery, forms, motor vehicles, signage, advertising, published material, audio-visual productions, expositions and personnel identification. Federal Identity Program, Section 6: Fields of Application

Apparently they think they can get away with it is the straightforward answer to the question why? Treasury Board even has a document which illustrates a number of reasons why officials fail to comply with the rules, and I think our Conservative overlords fit most of them to a "T":

• no sense of accountability or little concern for accountability;
• lack of expected consequences for not complying;
• officials show no qualms about breaking rules that apply internally to government, with many believing there is no obligation to follow a policy;
• a sense of entitlement (officials seek benefits or restitution);
• a belief that government rules are inherently unnecessary and stifle innovation; and
• a sense of being (or of a situation being) above rules and their application.

The most powerful people in Canadian government - cabinet Ministers in Stephen Harper's government - are not following the rules. It isn't the first breach of ethics we've seen from this government (check out the news section of Democracy Watch) and it surely won't be the last uncovered.

A gracious hat tip to Warren Kinsella for pointing out a number of the image links found in this article.