Saving democracy on the cheap

Part of the fallout from Harper insider Yaroslav Baran's coup at Canadem, which resulted in the contract for those Ukraine election observers being awarded to a new entity, is that the observers on the ground are enjoying a massive pay cut.

Apparently they're not happy about it.

This time around the Canadians will be upholding democracy for approximately half of the daily stipend paid to OSCE election monitors.

That's left a lot of them worried they'll be subsidizing their mission out of their own pockets.

Well, that shouldn't come as a surprise. They are after all constantly referred to as "volunteers".

Long-time Harper crony gets contract to provide Canadian election observers for Ukraine election

There's been a bit of a flap over Canadian "democracy promotion" NGO Canadem losing the contract to supply 500 election monitors for the Ukraine elections later this month.

Instead, the contract goes to newly minted democracy promotion NGO CEOM, which stands for Canadian Election Observer Missions, and is the creation of two other NGOs, the Forum of Federations and CUSO.

The spokesperson for CEOM is none other than long-time Harper operative Yaroslav Baran, according to this story in the Globe and Mail.

But what's really amusing is that as of today Baran remains listed as a member of the Board of Directors of Canadem!

Hmm... a little political intrigue in the backrooms?

A little back-stabbing perhaps?

Some good-old-fashioned Harper gang cronyism?...