As virtually everyone in Canada knows, the Gomery Commission has been investigating the so-called "sponsorship scandal" within the federal government. Tens if not hundreds of millions were spent by the government on advertising contracts to Quebec advertising agencies for little or no value. It continually amazes me how diligent the government is in collecting our taxes, yet how wasteful it is in spending that money. If any one of us ran our personal finances in the same fashion we'd be broke.

These are actual excerpts from the transcript of the Gomery Commission on February 10, 2005, the day on which Prime Minister Paul Martin was put on the stand under oath:

Q: Any you were also appointed on November 4th, 1993, the day you became Finance Minister, as Minister responsible for the Federal Office for the Regional Development of Quebec or FORDQ?

A (by Paul Martin, the Prime Minister of Canada): That is correct. ...

A: My only role in FORDQ was to ensure that this transformation of FORDQ from a hodgepodge of grants and loans and involvements that it was in essentially focused on small and medium businesses. ...

Q: Now a year later FORDQ actually held a competition and Groupe Evereste won the competition and became the agency for FORDQ. Were you aware of that?

A: I was aware that FORDQ was going to be focusing its advertising.

I heard the audio clip of this on the radio and couldn't stop laughing! In my books, it's a very telling acronym especially in the context of the sponsorship scandal.

This next clip comes from the Office of the Information Commissioner's 2002-2003 Annual Report:

"One of the organizations covered by the Access to Information Act is Canada Economic Development for the Quebec Region (FORDQ). This organization, as its name implies, provides economic assistance--primarily through loans and grants--to firms in the Quebec region."

As its name implies ...

mortgage calculator