Hijacked by the Policrats

There are thousands of worthwhile and needy causes on which to spend 65 million of Canadian taxpayer dollars. One of them definitely is not using all those tax dollars to tell us what wonderful work our governments are doing for us.

The federal government has added another $11 million to the $54 million already allocated this fiscal year to telling us how it is making our lives better. Of the $11 million in estimated new spending, $3.5 million will go to the finance department to explain the government’s economic initiatives. Advertising for armed forces recruiting, Canada’s 150^th birthday celebrations and promoting services for new Canadians get the rest. All those are tied to the government’s re-election platforms.

You can’t even check the local weather without getting messages from the federal government. Environment Canada weather web sites now are Government of Canada sites with a topline banner of clickable federal services such as jobs, benefits and health. The search box at the top of the weather pages has nothing to do with searching weather: it’s yet another link to federal information and services.

Meanwhile, resources to give us real live weather observations are being cut back to save money.

Spending public money to advertise government services that will help draw votes is no longer seen as shameful by our political-bureaucrat government leaders. The current government is shameless about it, but you can be sure that any of the other parties will follow the same line if elected.

This is another example of how our growing political-bureaucrat class is hijacking our democracy. The policrats make more and more decisions based not on what is best for the people, but on retaining power. They do this because most of us never raise our voices.

Most of us are too busy with other things to take time to speak out. And, that is a growing tumour in our democracy.  

Check out my Minden Times column at: http://mindentimes.ca/?p=6262