By BJ Bjornson
This is just embarrassing
Three sterling silver flower baskets sold off by the government at bargain-basement prices on a government website were on loan to Rideau Hall from Buckingham Palace, Sun Media has learned.
Richard Legrand, who worked at the governor general's residence for 35 years, says he was told when he started at Rideau Hall in 1968 that the ornate pierced silver flower baskets were among several items borrowed from the British royal family.
"Those three baskets were on loan from Buckingham Palace, including two huge candelabra that we used on the diningroom table for state events."
Whenever Queen Elizabeth II visited Canada and stayed at Rideau Hall, the silver baskets filled with flowers were placed in the suite where she slept, said Legrand who retired in 2003.
"This was a special treat because we knew they were English, we knew they were from Buckingham Palace."
We know our government's are usually thieves, but generally its more figurative, or at least of the white collar/embezzlement variety. Hocking other people's stuff like a cheap pawn shop is a new low.
No offense, BJ, but better you guys than us...
ReplyDeleteI don't know BJ. As loathsome as our politicians may be on occasion I think they have a hard time matching the pure venality and self interest of the Canadian civil service. Dollars to timbits that someone in the civil service had their eye on those pieces and found a way to get them cheap.
ReplyDeletePeter, much as I appreciate a good hate-on for the civil service, my experience is that it doesn�t even require venality and self interest to make bone-headed decisions. While I won�t bet on the possibility that a civil servant who knew what the baskets where took advantage of the situation to pick said items up, I�d be willing to risk some timbits that the actual decision to sell the items came from high enough up the chain that we�re at least talking political appointees. To put it very simply, while a civil servant may be able to steal (nominal) government property and fence it, the authority to sell off public assets on a government website has to come from very high up.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I think this was more embarrassingly stupid than venal and self-interested, and turning a quick buck by selling off government property nobody not paying close attention is likely to miss carries just the right amount of ideological timbre to suggest Conservative involvement.
LOL, like the Queen cares. She's like McCain, has difficulty keeping track of how many houses she has, only even richer.
ReplyDeleteIf the baskets were important to her, they would have gone back to Buck Palace after her visit, no? Someone in Sun Media is making a story out of thin gruel, seems to me.
Regards, Steve
I wouldn't doubt the Queen hardly even aware of such things Steve, particularly given the stuff has been there since the 60's.
ReplyDeleteStill, while not exacly earth-shattering, it doesn't show a lot of prudence to sell off something you don't even own for a 1/20th of its value.
And while it seems thin gruel, at least it seems to have woken up the government to the fact that they should probably research the history and ownership of the items they were selling off.