Dave writes, “Could this be the last year that this is required? Canada will see an election in 2015. This year brought us temporary foreign workers, refugee abuse, unwanted changes to election laws, and much much more.”
You would think spending public money on partisan activities
would rile up staunch Conservatives. But
who am I to know these things? Maybe
they have a new rallying cry? “Cut the
size of government except for Public Relations employees!” “No more government spending except on
partisan advertisements!” Seems a bit
strange, but apparently this is the new reality.Our government spends insane amounts of money telling us how great
they are. I took a harder look at this earlier in the
year and determined that actual dollar amounts on government advertising
aren’t much different than what the Liberals did before them. But the subject of those advertisements is
completely different. The Liberals
taught us about the harms of smoking, how to file our taxes online and
snookered people into joining the army.
The Cons told us that down
is up,
became the marketing arm of the Canadian oil industry and kept telling us about
how great a job they’re doing. While also
trying to snooker people into joining the army.For years we’ve wondered how the Cons are able to make so
much more in donations than the other parties.
We have some new insight. Joe
Oliver turned his latest
economic update speech into an $800 per table fundraising event. Shelley Glover “invited” members of the
Winnepeg Arts Community…who
rely on her ministry for funding…to a fundraiser. Leona
Aglukkaq did something similar. And
Mark Adler decided to invite a bunch of lobbyists…lobbyists
who officially lobbied him…to come to a fundraiser. They probably were in his office when the
invitations were delivered and he felt awkward not inviting them, right?Worst though, is that they’re using government agencies as
political tools. They’ve unleashed the
CRA on charities whose message they don’t like, subjecting them to audits. People high up in the CRA have even admitted
that they look at political leanings when they select charities for audit
(she later claims that she misspoke) and that they listen to complaints from
MP’s and Ministers. This hit peak
ridiculousness when a birdwatching
group received a threatening letter from the CRA shortly after sending
letters to several ministers over concerns about threatened bird habitat. Don’t worry though. The Cons looked into their own actions and decided
it doesn’t need to be investigated.
Best of Canadian Politics – 2014
(Thanks, Dave!)