The Feds Just Don’t Get It
by Bruce Hutton

The power brokers in Ottawa and Ontario just don’t get it.  Window dressing a one hundred and thirty six year old problem just isn’t going to cut it.

Paul Martin speaks of “…a revamped Senate …more government employees in the west, and … promises to be a better listener to the West’s concerns.”  The same irresponsible dribble comes from Tequila Sheila Copps.  Anne McLellan even suggested a satellite Prime Minister’s Office in Edmonton.

No one in Ottawa has the courage or honesty to make the Senate into an elected, equal and effective (a.k.a. - powerful) body.  The power brokers and particularly the Prime Minister will not allow it. They like it like it is.  Think about it.  With party line voting and a powerless Senate, Canada is the only democracy (and I use the term loosely) that allows the leader to make all the decisions on what is going to happen.  And as a reward for the rest of the participants (sheep) in Canadian politics, if you play your political cards right, you have a chance to get a great position when you are over the hill.

As concerns about the Senate relate to the West, one need only look at Prime Minister Chrétien’s three recent appointments to the useless Senate to substantiate my argument.  He has snubbed the Alberta peoples’ effort to make the Senate elected by ignoring Alberta’s two duly elected Senators-in-waiting, Mr. Brown and Mr. Morton.  This is, of course, the first step in Senate reform and it can be done without the fearful “re-opening of the Constitution”.

And all the politicians “who would be king or queen” advocate creating more employment in the west by hiring 60,000 more government employees. Where does the 2.4 billion dollars in salaries and millions more for office space, etc for these new government employees come from?  From the working taxpayer, of course!  The feds just don’t get it. The west wants less government, not more government.  Westerners want a responsible, accountable government that does a great job of running the country and managing our money.

Finally, a Prime Ministers office permanently staffed as “Annie Get Your Gun” McLellan put it “… to ensure a familiar voice” is another gross waste of taxpayers dollars.  If the “familiar voice” is ignoring your requests, what difference does it make where the office is located? 

These proposals are all cannon fodder.  They are nothing more than feeble attempts to garner votes and ultimately Liberal seats in the West in the next federal election.

It won’t work.  It doesn’t address the real problems. The problems are immense and many Westerners have had enough.  Anyone with any commonsense knows enough of anything is too much.  The next problem is a viable alternative.