Wednesday, September 16, 2009

It's not easy for Conservatives to make priorities

The Conservatives are the highest-spending government in Canadian history, a distinction, by the way, they achieved before the economic downturn they denied until the end necessitated large stimulus spending. Still, it boggles the mind sometimes when you consider what they're choosing to spend our money on.

For example, trying to keep one of our citizens in exile in a foreign land:

The Harper government spent more than $800,000 fighting a losing legal battle to keep Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik from coming home, according Justice Minister Rob Nicholson in a written answer delivered yesterday to the House of Commons.

Mr. Abdelrazik, spent years in forced exile in Sudan while successive Canadian governments refused to issue him a passport because the U.S. had branded him an al-Qaeda operative and added him to the UN Security Council terrorist blacklist.
And that's just one of the many Canadians the Harper Conservatives have been fighting in the courts to deny their charter rights. Total the cost for the other cases and we're into the millions of dollars, easily.

Then there's the money we're spending to hire US spin doctors Ari Fleischer and Mike McCurry to book Stephen Harper on Fox News and make the Americans like him. The PMO has been trying to hide the contracts, but one of them has gotten out:

Secret Reform-Con contract with U.S. politico

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3 comments:

Ted Betts said...

Don't forget the half million to a private school in Guergis riding.

But we could go on and on with examples.

And on and on and on and on...

Concerned Albertan said...

Or the million to an exclusive membership sports club in Edmonton Centre...

Gayle said...

how about all that stimulus money going to ridings with low unemployment rates. Why is Gerard Kennedy the only one pushing that particular issue.