{"id":16978,"date":"2017-04-05T12:45:49","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T16:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16978"},"modified":"2017-04-05T12:45:49","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T16:45:49","slug":"politics-as-usual-its-our-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-its-our-money\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: It’s Our Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have always found big cheque presentations to be a somewhat curious thing: giant cheques presented with much fanfare by an MP or MPP, or what have you, generally with lots of coverage by local media.
\nBroad smiles and self congratulatory speeches ensue about wonderful funding initiatives to build better roads, or a new school, or cancer research funding or some other worthy public investment.
\nThey are Feel Good announcements to be sure. I am not knocking the funding, though one can sometimes quibble with what does or does not get funded.
\nHowever, the cynic in me can\u2019t help but notice that the delivery of giant cheques are usually timed to either distract from some sort of crisis (oh, look at this money we are giving to support needy children, pay no attention to the millions we\u2019ve squandered on poor energy policies) or burnish to a sheen a government\u2019s image as it gets set for another election.
\nGiven that the end result is still that an important initiative is getting some much needed investment, it is \u2013 as the kids say these days \u2013 \u201call good.\u201d
\nBut, back to the matter of the giant cheque. Lost amidst the feel good, good news story about funding is the question of whose money exactly is it that they\u2019re announcing they\u2019re spending? Or, putting it another way, whose bank account is that cheque drawn on?
\nWell, ours of course! It\u2019s our money they are announcing they\u2019re spending.
\nWhich brings me back to my initial comment about the incongruity of cheque presentations: it has always struck me as odd to see some government bigwig stand up there, face beaming with pride, as he (or she) announces the latest beneficiary of government largesse. It\u2019s not his money he\u2019s handing out. It\u2019s mine. So why all the fanfare?
\nAnd it\u2019s not even money that I have willingly given. I didn\u2019t say, \u201cHere, take my money. Go buy yourself something frilly.\u201d It\u2019s money that\u2019s taken through mandatory taxation.
\nAgain, not quibbling about paying taxes. Of course you need to pay taxes; how else do you fund services that the public needs and wants \u2013 health care, energy, roads, water.
\nTaxes provide stable funding from which governments can draw to keep our communities protected. And I am not quibbling about the government spending our money on worthwhile initiatives. It\u2019s why elect them. To identify priorities and then fund them.
\nAnd then we vote them out of office when they don\u2019t fund what we think are priorities – or mismanage our money, period.
\nMaybe I am getting cranky, but what I do take issue with \u2013 and have always taken issue with \u2013 is the smarmy big cheque photo op. To quote a friend who shares the same opinion as I do about these things, why do they never mention that it\u2019s our money? Or at least thank the citizens whose taxes are actually paying for whatever it is they\u2019re announcing?
\nWhile it\u2019s all fine and good to move forward with infrastructure investment, or finally providing broadband coverage to some of our more rural communities, let\u2019s never lose site of the fact that at the end of the day, it is all paid for with our money.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas I have always found big cheque presentations to be a somewhat curious thing: giant cheques presented with much fanfare by an MP or MPP, or what have you, generally with lots of coverage by local media. Broad smiles and self congratulatory speeches ensue about wonderful funding initiatives to build better roads, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4pQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 16:41:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}