The award for making an ass of yourselves by failing to do even basic research goes to…

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation! Congratulations to Ann Coulter wannabe and CTF Ontario director Tasha Kherididdin, and all the little people that made her unsurprising victory possible.

The CTF is honoured for the following entry in their annual Teddies Waste Awards, awarded on Parliament Hill today to “give the people who fleece Canadian taxpayers the recognition they so richly deserve.” Here’s one of their “nominees”:

Good Night, and Good Luck (Finding the Paperwork) -- Nominated For: Achievement in Special Effects

In this tale, a $132,000 contract is awarded by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development to Ottawa-based Totem Hill Inc on an “oral” basis. Paperwork? Negative. Value for money? No idea. Taxpayers getting hosed by an out-of-control federal department? Affirmative.

A leading actress for the department says the contract complies with all the rules. And on this point the movie takes a powerful turn when former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien enters to verify the contract’s legitimacy with one of his all time famous quips: “A proof is a proof. What kind of proof? It’s a proof. A proof is proof. And when you have a good proof, it’s because it is proven.”

It’s ironic they would name this nomination for a movie that chronicles the fight of one of the giants of journalism against McCarthyism. You don’t need to be Edward R. Murrow to know a little basic research before running the story is a good idea.

The movie's tagline is "You got it right." And the CTF got it so wrong. As I blogged here two months ago. Or perhaps they might have caught the reality check that ran during the campaign on the CBC National news. Former minister Andy Scott wrote Harper a letter about it, perhaps he should have cc’d the CTF.

To briefly recap: Paperwork? Positive. I don’t have the PDF document anymore and the link on the Liberal site is dead, but hundreds of pages are publicly available, Tasha, and have been for many, many months. Call up your friend, Jim Prentice. He’ll e-mail them to you. Value for money? Maybe you should try READING the reports before you decide. Taxpayers being lied to by a lobby group shilling for the Conservatives? You betcha.

Oh, and by the way Tasha, the Chretien “proof” quote wasn’t talking about contracts, but the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, before the invasion by your hero George W. Bush that your leader Mr. Harper would have had Canada join.

Thanks for coming out.

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