“We are in a continuous election campaign with no discussion of issues,” observes Ned Franks, a political scientist at Queen’s University and a leading authority on Canada’s Parliament.
If an election is called, I’d really like to ignore it, right up to the very end. But, I know I’ll be reviewing all of the platforms, reading plenty of commentary, and arguing about the issues. This would be much more satisfying if the election was actually important. The Federal government seems to be slowly fading into irrelevance.
Emma is very happy with her new bike and is quite a fast rider.
On our ferry trip across to PEI, we caught the attention of the boat’s captain. He was kind enough to let us visit the bridge and take some photos. The setup is pretty amazing, with many radar screens and blinking devices, but all offset by a tiny steering wheel.
Owen’s enjoying the trip.
Yelled at by the owner of the Inlet Cafe in Mahone Bay for some spilled Owen cheerios. Not family friendly, despite the high chairs and …
Out-of-office messages are set, let the vacation begin! Two weeks on a family road trip to the Canadian east coast.
But using federal dollars for infrastructure has two powerful political advantages. It gives taxpayers something tangible for their money. And it allows cabinet ministers and government backbenchers to fan out across the country, announcing local projects.
Earlier in the 20th century, governments treated public money with the same puritanical respect that people generally treated their own money in a famously frugal age. It wasn’t that these governments never wasted public money, never misused it. It was that they did everything parsimoniously.
But government waste, though infuriating for taxpayers, is a small thing. The real tragedy lies in the inexorable rise in deliberate spending. In the exponential increases cited by Gordon Robertson, across two or three decades, the most unnecessary spending was entirely intentional, duly instigated by government and duly authorized by Parliament.
This is right http://bit.ly/XDNA3 I’ll vote for the party that proposes a credible plan to increase taxes and cut spending.
eHealth Ontario is controversial. But, having just copied my information dozens of times for routine paperwork, we need electronic records.
What makes these service stoppages all the more irritating is that they are unnecessary. Elected politicians can – if they have the nerve – remove the conditions that foster them. Only where cities operate a unionized public monopoly on garbage pickup are city residents potential hostages to a strike vote. And there is no good reason for these monopolies to exist.
