Government Corruption
The Liberals made honesty and integrity the pillars of their 1993 campaign. Nonetheless, in recent years the Chrétien government has been hit with wave after wave of scandals:

In 1997, Liberal fundraiser Pierre Corbeil was convicted of influence peddling for pressuring businesses to pay kickbacks to the Liberal party in order to receive federal job grants.

In 2000, the Human Resources Department came under scrutiny in what journalists dubbed the “Billion Dollar Boondoggle,” when it turned out that over $1 billion in job training funds had disappeared when Alfonse Gagliano was Minister of the department.
Later in 2000, Gagliano came under fire again in his position as Minister of Public Works. It was revealed that the department awarded millions in advertising contracts to Groupaction, a Montreal advertising firm that employed Gagliano’s son. In January 2002, Chrétien removed Gagliano from Public Works and appointed him ambassador to Denmark.

In May 2002, Auditor General Sheila Fraser released a report condemning the federal governments’ dealings with Groupaction. The RCMP subsequently launched an investigation into $1.6 million in advertising contracts awarded to the firm.
Within weeks of the Auditor Generals’ report, Chrétien was forced to shuffle his cabinet after two more ministers faced conflict of interest allegations. Don Boudria, Gagliano’s replacement as Minister of Public Works, was demoted for spending a ski weekend with his family at a chalet owned by Groupe Everest, another Quebec advertising firm that received millions in contracts from the Public Works department. Defence Minister Art Eggleton was removed from Cabinet altogether for paying an ex-girlfriend over $35,000 to write a report on post-traumatic stress disorder. Not only had the department already paid for a similar report, but the final result was barely fourteen pages long.
In late May, Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay faced conflict of interest allegations after it was revealed he consulted with the RCMP about providing a PEI college with a grant for law training courses. The President of the college was MacAulay’s brother.
In June 2003, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, George Radwanski, was forced to resign amid allegations he had altered documents and filed false expense claims. During the Auditor General’s investigation into Radwanski’s affairs it was discovered that, the day before his appointment as Privacy Commissioner, Revenue Canada forgave $540,000 Radwanski owed in back taxes. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has consistently claimed it knew nothing about Radwanski’s tax situation and did not play a role in Revenue Canada’s decision to forgive the debt.

Finally, there is the ongoing controversy over job grants and other economic funds distributed to Chrétien's home riding of Shawinigan. For example, Liberal organizer Paul Lemire was convicted of defrauding businesses of $200,000 in HRDC grants.

While some scandals were more serious than others, together they form a picture of a government that Chrétien biographer Lawrence Martin calls “an ethical disaster.” Furthermore, the problem shows no signs of abating. Currently, five Cabinet Ministers are under fire for accepting hospitality from the Irvings, New Brunswick’s most powerful family. In a recent speech, Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper blamed the scandals for lowering Canada’s ranking on a global competitiveness scale (Canada dropped from ninth place to sixteenth in one year). “The ethical deficit is harming our country,” he said.

Source: http://www.mapleleafweb.com/feature...low-points.html


Remember that during this time Paul Martin was the finance minister who is in effect the second most powerful person in politics in Canada.