The big news in Canada today was the release of the much anticipated Gomery report, which was supposed to finally explain the sponsorship scandal and lay blame against those responsible. Unfortunately, I fear that $32 million of taxpayers money (which is 1/8 of the total scandal amount) has been wasted as the Gomery report was revealed to be nothing but a joke.

How on earth could the Finance Minister have no idea what was going on? If it has to do with money, should he not be aware of it? I like Paul Martin (maybe more a year ago than I do now) but even I am not so daft as to think he had no idea. Not even an inkling, Mr. Gomery? I mean get real! Same goes for Mr. Chrétien, who I think was a great Prime Minister despite the scandal. No evidence to suggest that Chrétien knew what was going on? Again, get real!

“Since Mr. Chrétien chose to run the program from his own office, and to have his own exempt staff take charge of its direction, he is accountable for the defective manner in which the sponsorship program and initiatives were implemented,” Gomery said.

Chrétien said Gomery falsely determined that the office of the prime minister administered the sponsorship program.

“There is no evidence before him to support that allegation,” Chrétien said.

Perhaps the biggest joke of all? No one is going to read it, and most Canadians simply don’t care. I happened to watch Global National tonight, and despite the government charging $49 for a copy of the report, the TV show couldn’t give a copy away (some guy finally took it, no doubt to burn with glee). Canada’s free daily Dose even hired actors to read the report aloud, though passersby didn’t seem to notice.

Now we wait for a February/March election and the second report from Mr. Gomery, unless the NDP decide to join the other opposition parties and press for an election before Christmas. I think we should move to a US-style election. Under that system, the petty fighting between parties would be sidelined as one party is in charge for four years regardless. And when that term is up, you’ve got a real chance to keep them or dump them. The current “call an election when it best suits us” system is stupid.

Read: CBC News