Elections seem to bring out the worst in people, who invent errors in their opponent’s position, yet swallow the most outrageous whoppers from their own party.
No sooner has Joe Oliver bent himself double explaining the difference between a Liberal slush fund using high EI premiums (a tax) to finance other projects and a Conservative slush fund using high EI premiums and the contingency fund to produce a faux “balanced budget” (their pet project) than his local supporters are claiming the contingency fund was set up for precisely that purpose.
I can well believe that Stephen Harper set up the fund for political purposes, but to claim that it is anything other than a slush fund is ludicrous. Contingency funds are supposed to cover unexpected expenditures. Since everyone and his dog knew it would be a frosty Friday in hell before Harper balanced a budget, this was hardly unexpected.
This month, I received a taxpayer-funded pamphlet from our MP claiming that the same government that said there is no social contract with veterans, that tried to claw back disability benefits from veterans, and also tried to fob them off with lump sum payments in order to save money, is “working for Canada’s brave veterans.” The same vets who are campaigning to get rid of Harper.
Enough already! Has he no sense of shame?
Richard Smiley, Anglemont
