Got the Summit Blues

For months now I've been ruminating about the escalating series of lies, screw ups and scandals perpetrated by our federal ruling party, and thought things were about as bad as they could get, but the advance media stories trickling out about the G-8 and G-20 Summits here in Ontario suggest it's only going to get worse.

Starting with the revelation that security alone for the two wank fests will cost a billion of our tax dollars, and will likely be much higher by the time it's all over, the whole thing becomes extremely anxiety provoking to contemplate what the entire tab will be.

With our intrepid RCMP in charge of security, they managed to find a company that isn't licensed in our province to do the work. Never mind, the provincial ministry will no doubt fast track the application process; they'd better, since hiring has already started and the fun starts rather soon.

The area around the Toronto event will be cordoned off, and even the Theatre District has given up and canceled performances that week, just as the CN Tower and Art Gallery will be closed to visitors. The University of Toronto, ever vigilant, closed down parts of the campus where it was deemed too close to potential protests. So has the Ontario College of Art & Design. The Blue Jays had to move their ball game out of town and even the much loved Steamwhistle Brewery will close its doors. Sounds more like a war zone than a conference.

But the icing on the cake has to be the artifical lake they are constructing down near the Exhibition grounds. When this story came out I thought I was dreaming. It's just too ridiculous, too bizarre, to be real. But, like the tories trumpeting maternal health while simultaneously banning funding for family planning, the fake lake is indeed true. And it is going to cost two million dollars!

This monument to wasteful spending and prime ministerial hubris is to include fake Muskoka chairs, a fake dock and fake back drop, all for the benefit of those journalists not chosen to head on up to the G-8 where the really important leaders will hang out. Maybe they can round up some of Mel Lastman's old life sized plastic mooses just to jazz it up even more. Perhaps along with them, a few fake fish in the water to add some realism. Hey, it's gonna need all the help it can get. Those journalists can get real snarky with their nasty comments.

It's a good thing our Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, will be on the job after the federal bank accounts have been emptied, to tell us all the juicy details about how our government, with a budget deficit this year of about 50 billion, blew all that dough on a party. It is to weep.