Joe Oliver’s ‘administrative’ foray

Joe Oliver tried to explain why the federal government is getting out of the business of doing environmental assessments for things like pipelines, nuclear facilities or landfill cleanups.

“it’s a sort of administrative process which doesn’t actually review anything. What we’re doing is getting rid of some of the paperwork”
– Joe Oliver, Toronto Star, August 30, 2012

We know Joe “nothing to see here” Oliver has got his talking points down, but if his words aren’t exactly soothing, there’s a good reason. Conservatives have turned the term “administrative” into a pseudonym for “forthcoming disaster”.

Other epic Conservative “administrative” episodes:

When the Finance Minster broke his own sole source contracting rules:

“I do not regret hiring Mr MacPhie. I do regret that administrative functions were not followed."
– Jim Flaherty, Canadian Press, May 14, 2008

When John Baird defended Tony Clement’s G8 slush-fund:

“[There were] administrative deficiencies surrounding the intake of these projects__”
– John Baird, National Press Theatre, June 9, 2011

When the Conservative Party pled guilty to breaking election spending laws:

“This is a question of a long-standing administrative dispute with Elections Canada”
– Pierre Poilievre, House of Commons, March 7, 2012

With growing concerns about Conservative mismanagement and unscrupulous politics, Canadians are now starting to understand the Conservative lexicon – when there’s “administrative” smoke, there’s Conservative fire.