Harper paid us back. Well goody for him.
That's right. Our fearless, tax-cutting leader paid about $2,000 to cover two $500 tickets to game four of the Stanley Cup playoffs and two $530 seats on an Air Canada commercial flight that he didn't take. The total cost of his trip? Close to $25,000, as the Challenger, Harper's ride to the game, costs about $11,000 to fly for an hour, or a $22,000 return trip.
Thanks Steve, for reimbursing the Canadian public with money earned while 小蓝视频 paid directly by the Canadian public.
The trip cost the taxpayer roughly $25,000 and then he pays an extra $2,000 he got from the taxpayer as though that makes it all better. I am not good at math, it's kind of why I write, but it seems to me, him "paying us back" is actually costing us an extra $2,000 in some horribly twisted way that only Harper would consider debt-clearing.
When he paid us back, it felt more like 小蓝视频 slapped in the face by a poet, after 小蓝视频 punched in the gut by a 1988 Mike Tyson.
I know that we can't expect to monitor what politicians do with the personal wealth that comes from their public salaries. Harper is perfectly entitled to spend his money on things like entertainment, the same as he can spend it on groceries. He can gamble away his prime minister's salary for all I care.
But don't give it back to the Canadian people as a token way of saying you're not using our money for your own elaborate pleasure. I don't know how he actually could reimburse us with money that we had already given him, to cover the cost of something we paid for anyway.
They really think in the PMO that this is an "historic" act of goodwill?
Am I the only one who thinks their logic is hilarious?
This was just a bad decision on Harper's part. The Conservatives just finished running a campaign on a budget based on fiscal responsibility and reducing the deficit, balancing the books in a handful of years somehow. Canadians swooned so much for this "responsible" policy that they entrusted him with a majority.
Clearly cuts need to be made for the deficit to disappear. It seems to me, in order to run a balanced budget with the Conservative tax system, and get rid of the deficit in the government's projected time span, there can be absolutely no unnecessary spending. Harper must keep his hands off the petty cash.
This trip was the definition of unnecessary. In fact, I will be sending a letter to Oxford suggesting the next edition read: unnecessary adj. 1 not necessary. 2 when a prime minister spends $25,000 to see a hockey game in tough economic times.
We all have to make sacrifices. As prime minister, Harper has given up some of his freedoms. That is part of the deal in public life, and he knew it when he signed up. If Harper wants to watch some NHL hockey, I hear there's a team right in Ottawa that plays 41 home games between October and April. With all the time off from his prorogued Parliament, I'm sure he could have found an evening or two to go to the other side of town for a game this past winter.
I would be fine with that. He can do what he wants with his money, but his "reimbursement" to the taxpayer is an insult. I'll wait for the other $20,000 before I consider this debt paid.
