When Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page criticizes the Conservatives, the Liberals take his words as gospel and embrace him as a strong fiscal crusader. Now that Mr. Page has defended the G20 Budget that the opposition has been rallying around as their controversy du jour, you have to wonder if the opposition will calm down. The cost is not as outrageous as Mr. Ignatieff is bloviating, though it would have been considerably cheaper had we sent soldiers with guns into the streets. Yes, soldiers with guns….in our streets.
Perhaps it was too ambitious to host both the G20 and the G8, and that is a legitimate argument. My own polling has 30% of my predominantly Conservative audience wanting to host both summits, and 55% wanting us to host neither. Even if the budget is not as unreasonable as some people are making it out to be, a significant proportion of the Tory base is not interested in hosting either summit. You can't say in this instance that hosting the summits represents the Prime Minister playing to his base. The desire to raise Canada's profile on the world stage doesn't excite the Tory base, though you can make an argument that it will benefit Canada's image in the long term.
There is a lot to be said for wanting to raise our national profile, and I don't think our government's desire to impress our guests is something that should be vilified. Okay, maybe the fake lake was a bad idea, though I'm sure even that one is being exaggerated. Those people with the previous opinion that the Conservative Government is fiscally irresponsible (minority government be damned) will quickly seize on this as evidence to validate their initial opinions.
The opposition and media would have flipped had the PM said no to any one of the summits.
ReplyDeleteOkay, maybe the fake lake was a bad idea, though I'm sure even that one is being exaggerated.
ReplyDeleteYup,you're right Iceman,the fake lake costs HAVE been exaggerated.
G8/G20 summit fake lake to cost $57K
The 1.2 billion cost is 60 times the cost of the G20 meetings in both London, England and Pittsburgh, USA. This is not in any way reasonable. We have now got 3 federal socialist parties. They come in Blue, Red and Orange flavour. The actions of this government speak for themselves.
ReplyDeleteo/t hang onto your hats, here we go!
ReplyDelete(listen up blue Liberals, if yah'r thinking there is no way in H you can be part of an inevitable lefty union, break away...)
this little gem on NNW screen:
''NB Tory MP Rodney Weston told a NB talk radio host Tuesday afternoon that if the need arose after the next federal election, the Conservative Party would form a coalition government...''
Kevin said...
ReplyDeleteThe 1.2 billion cost is 60 times the cost of the G20 meetings in both London, England and Pittsburgh, USA
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These meetings costs have not been transparent.
Who pays the transportation costs to get all these leaders and their entourages to Canada. Does the host nation.
ReplyDeleteWatching the HofC and my point is proven. TO lib mp made a stmt re the costs of the summit and the cancellation of funding for their pet event, the pride parade.
While most of the press and our loyal opposition focus on the fake lake, which btw is a great deal for a lake in dt teeoh, how about those boots for $26,000+ I want a pair of them, do you think they will sell them on ebay after? Raising Canada's profile? Did we not just host the olympics? I guess it all just boils down to this, lets face it, a billion dollars just does not buy what it used to.
ReplyDelete