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I owe my old friend Kamil a debt he knows nothing about.
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Kamil was a truck driver. In fact, he was a darned good one. He immigrated from Eastern Europe, married a lovely lady from Newfoundland and started a family in Mississauga.
Kamil and his wife worked hard, she in a grocery store and he driving a truck. They were determined to give their children a good start in life and, by dint of sheer will, they did.
When I arrived at Queen’s Park, I didn’t know much about politics or government. But I knew Kamil.
For years, every time I was briefed on a proposed initiative or policy, I would ask how it would affect Kamil’s family. My staff started to call it the Kamil file.
I didn’t, of course, assume that every initiative would directly affect one family. But it was a great reminder that I wasn’t spending government money. I was spending money hard-working people paid in taxes. Money that otherwise might be invested in helping their kids get a good start.
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My task was to ensure we spent tax dollars wisely. The Kamil file ensured I felt the weight of that obligation every day.
I was thinking about the Kamil file this week when I read about some recent “investments” announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a moment of largesse, he announced $30 million to strengthen democracies.
The announcement came via a video appearance of Trudeau at the annual Summit for Democracy in South Korea.
If that sounds a little suspect, just wait for the details. As part of the package, Trudeau said: “Today I’m announcing that Canada is investing $8.4 million on research across the global south to better understand how climate change interacts with democratic decline.”
Something called the International Development Research Centre is getting $4.6 million to “create an equitable, feminist and inclusive digital sphere.” Fabulous.
You get the point. Trudeau is — not for the first time — throwing some loose change at nice-sounding stuff that will produce exactly nothing. In the global circles Trudeau swirls in, looking good is way more important than doing good.
Now, $30 million is pocket change to a man of Trudeau’s stature. Hardly worth getting into a sweat about. Except he isn’t throwing away his money.
Trudeau is spending Kamil’s tax dollars. More specifically, he’s spending Kamil’s kids’ tax dollars.
Canada is almost $1.2 trillion in debt. This year the interest on that debt will cost roughly $50 billion.
Vanity spending, like researching the effects of climate change on democracy in the global south, adds to the deficit. Trudeau is spending money Kamil’s kids will have to repay with interest.
So, what’s the point? Canadians have an obligation to pay taxes. On everything. But governments also have an obligation to spend wisely. They should put at least as much effort into considering the benefits of every expenditure as families do in everyday home budgets.
Spending $30 million borrowed dollars on ill-conceived efforts to “strengthen democracies” fails any reasonable value test. Worse, it seems the Trudeau government doesn’t know that tossing Canadian taxpayer dollars at sketchy global initiatives is just plain wrong.
This is what’s irreversibly off with the Trudeau government. Justin Trudeau counts as friends many of the world’s elite. But he has no personal experience with the hard-working people who fund his government.
And you can’t fix that.
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SNOBELEN: Trudeau spending our money on worthless vanity projects
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30.03.2024
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I owe my old friend Kamil a debt he knows nothing about.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
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Kamil was a truck driver. In fact, he was a darned good one. He immigrated from Eastern Europe, married a lovely lady from Newfoundland and started a family in Mississauga.
Kamil and his wife worked hard, she in a grocery store and he driving a truck. They were determined to give their children a good start in life and, by dint of sheer will, they did.
When I arrived at Queen’s Park, I didn’t know much about politics or government. But I knew Kamil.
For years, every time I was briefed on a proposed initiative or policy, I would ask how it would affect Kamil’s family. My staff started to call it the Kamil file.
I didn’t, of course, assume that every initiative would........
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