The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is
on the whine again.
A new report says the Harper government used the guise of "economic diversification" to pour hundreds of millions of tax dollars into a booming western economy.
Of course they did it under a "guise". If they did it up front people would criticize them at the time they did it. They're conservatives - they have to pay off their friends.
It's all been handled under the Western Economic Diversification fund, which has paid out more than $440 million across the four western provinces since the Conservatives came to power in January 2006.
A party with a western power-base pours money into their power base. As corrupt as it appears, it's not that terribly strange. And they are, after all, conservatives - they have to pay off their friends.
Before becoming prime minister, Stephen Harper railed against regional subsidies.
That was then. This is now.
An exhaustive Access to Information search by the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation found that the Tories have funded everything from flagpoles to school murals.
But look at all the
useless things that have been
shut down! Womens' shelters have been collapsing all over the country, including the west. At least with a school mural there's a good chance one of them will include an image of Harper himself.
Priorities people. Priorities.
Kevin Gaudet of the taxpayers' federation says if the projects are worthwhile, they should be paid for in a more direct and transparent fashion. He questions why Ottawa was spending "crazy money" during boom times in areas of the country that were "rolling in dough."
Really? Is that all he wants to know?
Votes.
The conservatives have to buy them. In that single regard, it doesn't make them all that much different from any other political party holding the reins of government.
Wasn't that easy?
