Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Boondoggle 101 - Laugh, Cry

Kelly McParland lists off some of the more distasteful pork barrel spending of the 2009 in the National Post today.

* Over $335 million in support for culture and the arts — recognizing the importance of our artistic institutions and the role they play in Canadians’ lives.

They should just hire a guy with a flag, who could wave it at Quebec and yell: "Yoo-hoo, Quebec? Over here! $335 mill for the arts! See, we DO care. We LOVE the arts. Can't live WITHOUT it! Especially that stuff on Quebec TV. Hoo-boy, how did you guys get so TALENTED?

(...)

* The Government of Canada invests over $10 billion each year in Aboriginal priorities. Budget 2009 invests another $1.4 billion on Aboriginal priority issues.

Anything that helps First Nations is good. But Ottawa spends $10 billion a year already, and for that we get Third World conditions. Does anyone really believe throwing more money at the problem is the answer?

* $25 million for an endowment to support the creation of international awards to recognize excellence in dance, music, art and dramatic arts.

Yeah, awards, that's what we need. Especially international ones. That way we can get more international entries into categories like: Best televised program involving a politically correct visible minority in a hilarious comedy set in a small prairie town. (Or, Borat visits Dog River)

3 comments:

  1. All this from a so-called Conservative government. Gee, the stimulus program worked so well in japan. I guess it will work here in Canada. Lets tax what is left of the real economy and hand it out to art programs.
    Recessions are a normal part of the business cycle. They are painful, but they also clean out excesses. People in the past were aware of down cycles, they had always existed. Today a recessions seems to mean a time to increase spending on culture and arts.

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  2. Harper just does not seem to understand that these arts and culture groups will never vote for him. He could give a trillion dollars to arts and culture, and they would still hate the Conservative Party. Mean while back on the farm, the folks are getting rather upset. We just received a Coalition budget from the Conservative Party. This may be the biggest flip flop in Canadian history. The SODA program for Ontario, is right out of the Trudeau playbook.
    The level of disgust that I have for this Harper flip flop can not be put into words.

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  3. I agree it's a terrible thing. I am truly shocked. It's a massive flip flop. There's no point of him being in power with this budget. He sold out all his principles.

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