Dear editor,Well the skies above have cleared a bit, gone our air demonstration teams, all juiced up for their airshow season.I bet roaring through the skies is a scream. But what do we get out of it, the humble taxpayer who pays, and swallows deficits and service cuts, for these silly macho PR outlays? Are there any Snowbirdettes?Demonstration team sounds definitive, but I can’t define what they are demonstrating. Flight? Didn’t Orville and Wilbur demonstrate flight a long time ago? No, it can’t be flight.Maybe the CF18 demonstration team is demonstrating the deficiencies of this loud, clunky, definitely non-stealth, out-of-date plane? Is this so the Conservatives can get us suckers to jump on their boondoggle F-35 train?And what of the Snowbirds, those loopy little jets? As far as projecting our military might, all they can scare are pets. Take our best pilots, and the highest paid to boot, give them ancient airframes, and dress them in bright red suits, and you get the Royal Canadian Air Force Capades.Since when is the military intentionally a circus? Contain, maintain, and train, OK. But entertain?Jim Flaherty, our federal finance minister, has shot down the iconic copper penny for a measly $11 million to be saved every year forward, which could add up to a lot if you don’t think $11 million is a lot already.Based on their budgets and court actions, Mr. Flaherty’s, crew seems to be conservative about believing facts, and in telling the truth, but liberal with stupidity. Their claims can seem as empty as a new Canex mall. Whether fighting deficits, or rapidly declining crime statistics, immigration, demography or most things based on math, our governing Conservative servants, seem to sweep reality from their path. A cost-benefit analysis is always a good place to start; it helps to limit emotion, to let the facts play their part.Hey, how about a high dollar that makes our exports smart, or the highest per-capita consumer debt — how is that for a start? A total of 12,000 civil servants have been shorn of their pay. Maybe their kids, now deprived of income and opportunity, could also be great?I’m not saying that our government shouldn’t cut, or try to be efficient. I just think they suck at it, that John Duncan and crew are deficient.There are more important things to our communities than demonstration teams and expedience; one can only hope that realism might triumph, over tradition and obedience.Steve W. Hodge,Comox

Comox Valley Record