Premier Ghiz suffers from Richard Nixon complex

 The cover-up is worse than the facts on the PNP story which only deepens the public interest

The recent decision of the acting PEI Privacy Commissioner to withhold the names of PEI’s 1,200 or so PNP recipients is a false victory for Premier Robert Ghiz. PEI Privacy Commissioner turns down media request for PNP names

The public wants to know who got the $540 million. Not telling them only delays the agony for Premier Ghiz.

The media smell a story, as they should, and won’t let up.

The public is getting a bad taste in it’s mouth about  Ghiz. What has he got to hide? How much money went to his friends? How much did the Premier’s family get? The revelation that Kat Ghiz benefited from the PNP was shocking.

When the story broke, there were more than 100 comments on the CBC and Guardian websites, most of them denouncing the Premier for a lack of transparency at best and ethics at the worst.

This is the classic mistake of the Watergate cover-up of Nixonian proportions. US President Nixon lost his presidency because he tried to cover-up what was “a third rate burglary.”

The cover-up became the story long after the burglars were revealed to have political ties. The press kept digging and digging and all the money in the Republican party couldn’t keep mouths from talking.

Ghiz is living in a PR fantasy world. He keeps repeating the mantra about “a private matter between private individuals” until perhaps even he believes it. The Privacy Commissioner repeated it like a parrot and no one respected her for it.

The few people who openly support the Premier on that disingenuous line are shot down immediately as partisans or those on the take themselves.

The vortex will keep spinning and spinning until it engulfs Ghiz in his cover-up and deceit.

In the end, everything is known. Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has his reputation in tatters over trying to hide a paltry $225,00o or $300,000 from taxpayers and the courts.
 

Mulroney didn’t want the public to know he consorted with the influence peddler Karlheinz Schreiber, probably to coverup the Air Bus kick backs. Ghiz might have very good reasons for hiding the complete list of PNP recipients.

Of course, if Premier Ghiz is able to squirrel away enough of the $540 million for himself, what does he care. His reputation on PEI will matter little when he is lounging on some beach or golf course with a big cigar in hand.

Wealth does have it’s perks.

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