Does Anyone Else Wonder?

Greetings to followers of Desperate Times. This week we feature a guest blogger who poses the question: "Does anyone else wonder?"

Thank you, Don. Following the convoluted trail of our federal government, what is the average citizen to think? Does anyone else wonder why Stephen Harper's minority government vowed recently to build more prisons? Although, according to Statistics Canada, the crime rate in our country is falling. One Conservative member mused thoughtfully on a recent CBC news show, "How can we measure crime?" Not through Statistics Canada it seems, as its statistics will no longer be credible in years to come, if Harper's government has its way. The mandate of Statistics Canada was threatened by the Conservative minority government in July 2010. Their premise was that the long census form constitutes an "invasion of privacy". Really? We all know that by commanding the resources of Revenue Canada, Amazon.ca and Facebook, the knowledge of our income, charitable donations, spending habits, and social networks will be manifest to all.

Speaking of spending - the federal government has started, rather than ended the year 2011 by acting as Scrooge, urging Canadians to reduce their consumer debt. Hmm...we have to wonder...who was using taxpayers' money last summer to build a lake in Toronto for journalists from around the world? The Conservative minority government claimed this was an opportunity to promote Canada for tourism purposes. Do you know how many lakes we have? Still, we had to build one for foreign journalists. How authentic.

Of course the Harper minority government supports women - in other countries - as long as they do not wish to engage in family planning. They have also brought shame to our once-proud nation by neglecting the environment. And there is so much more - but we are running out of paper - and time. Literally.

Who Benefits?

All evidence suggests Canada is wasting lives and money but achieving nothing for the people of Afghanistan, by having our troops in their country. Our Conservative government's Department of National Defence is about to spend $9-16 billion on 65 "modern" aircraft - like the ones used by the Americans, who also build them!

May we hope that these planes will be more accurate in their aim, so that fewer Afghan civilians will be killed or injured?

Oink! Oink!

Very little is sacred these days. As Cole Porter would have put it, "Anything goes!" Since the Jaffer affair, lobbying has become a hot topic. Nevertheless, no one appears to object to lobbying, in one form or another. It is baffling! In our democracies, Ottawa's Parliament, the USA's Congress or the British House of Commons and House of Lords, it is not a violation to "persuade" people in power to sway their decisions. Persuasion for profit? Influence peddling? More like bribery - and viewed as criminal - outside politics.

What of party politics? Good? Sound? Honest? The great Winston Churchill changed parties twice. In those good old days a child of the elite went to Eton or Harrow; Oxford or Cambridge; short stint in the Grenadier or Coldstream Guards and then...decided which of the parties offered the best chance of a job! Jean Charest is a Conservative. He ran for the federal Conservative leadership in 1993 and lost to Kim Campbell, who got trounced in her first, and only, election. So, Jean became a provincial Liberal and is now Premier of Quebec with three consecutive minority election wins.

Then there is the matter of how many "jobs" an elected Member of Parliament, etc., can hold/manage. If s/he is a lawyer, it is acceptable to continue to practice. Run a construction company, you do not have to quit that job, or sell the company, to work serving the people!

The last straw happened yesterday. The Auditor-General, Sheila Fraser, courteously made a request to audit the expense accounts of the MPs, et al. The members of all parties, (about to embark on a seven-day sojourn of R and R) ran for the exits to avoid the press, and the reply to the A-G was, "No!" Such arrogance is appalling. Who the hell is in charge in Canada? Does the A-G need to ask? The figures spent by parliamentarians, reported by the CBC, is half a billion...that's right, billion dollars. Surely such a huge sum has to qualify for audit. That the members were reluctant to submit is immediately suspect.

The whole rotten bag-of-tricks needs replacing. I don't mean by electing Michael Ignatieff as P.M. That would be more of the same. We urgently require a national enquiry to determine EXACTLY what the duties of Members of Parliament, and their flunkies, hangers-on, lobbyists, etc., etc. are. What, EXACTLY, are their job descriptions, responsibilities, vacation periods (including periods of proroguing) salaries, extras (especially the extras). It won't happen, you say? You are probably right but until we, the voters, tell them what we will accept, you can bet your breeches the greed element in  them will go unchecked. The oinking 'on the Hill' has become deafening....