Trudeau spending our money on worthless vanity projects
I owe my old friend Kamil a debt he knows nothing about.
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.
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.”
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