Last week, it was revealed that Alberta's former Ambassador to Washington D.C. and Calgary-Varsity Tory MLA Murray Smith was paid $105,000 taxpayer dollars after quiting his job in Washington DC five months early. Smith has been replaced by another former Calgary-Mackay Tory MLA and Minister Gary Mar...It has also been revealed that after trying to hide the fact, Ed Stelmach signed the 2004 contract that gave Murray Smith the $105,000 payout while Stelmach was Ralph Klein's Intergovernmental Affairs Minister.
Because Alberta's accountable and transparent Progressive Conservative Government obviously has nothing better to do with $105,000 of Albertans money, I've come up with a list to help Ed Stelmach and his Progressive Conservative crew with some ideas.
What would $105,000 buy?
- Approximately 70,000 large double-doubles at Tim Horton's.
- 39 semesters of tuition for an undergraduate Arts or Science student at the University of Alberta.
- 3.5 taxpayer funded Tory Staffer bachelor parties in Las Vegas.
- 262 $400 prosperity rebate cheques...
- 5962 copies of Stephen Colbert's new book I am America (and so can you!) on Chapters.ca.
- 1179 youth-size winter jackets from Mountain Equipment Co-op.
- +17,000 Subway sandwiches (perhaps for students at inner-city schools?).
- 21 tickets to an exclusive $5,000 per ticket reception with Tory Premier Ed Stelmach.
- +13,000 regular admission tickets to the Montreal Planetarium.
Feel free to add your suggestions...
What would $105,000 buy?
ReplyDeleteThat's enough to buy the votes of all 16 of the Liberal Opposition MLAs.
Even if it meant they were voting WITH Ed Stelmach's Tories to give Corporate Alberta a huge tax cut.
Which is exactly what the big oil companies did in 2007.
Kevin Stelmach and Ed Taft...
Neither is worth your vote.
HAHAHA> nice breakdown, Dave.
ReplyDelete5 Idaho-Alberta task forces!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=2ad61511-c276-4cf9-9556-23a6bc002cdc&k=26183&p=2
Sadly only 37.4 semesters next year Dave... great comparisons though. I'm especially enjoying the Montreal Planetarium admissions
ReplyDelete"Sadly only 37.4 semesters next year Dave..."
ReplyDeleteEven worse. Shameful.
Anon 8:28 - Oh you zany New Democrats. Give me a call when you have a party.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, free tuition.
ReplyDeleteA chicken in every pot, and a B.A. or B.Sc. on every wall.
How very Lenin-ish of you.
We need construction and healthcare workers more than yet another know-it-all with a Poli-Sci degree.
Ed Stelmach, Paul Martin, Stephane Dion, what's the difference? All useless.
ReplyDelete"Even worse. Shameful."
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
This shows nothing more than what we already know... politicians CAN NOT be trusted with public money. They believe it is theirs to do with as they see fit and legally there isn't much we can do about that.
ReplyDeleteFor as long as we decide NOT to hold our politicians to the highest standards of ethics and good governance conduct, we will continue to have such theft of public funds and worse.
The only true thing about capital punishment reducing is crime is when it is applied to politicians. The first PM, Premier, MP or MLA who is hung for their abuse of power and misappropriation of public funds will serve as an example to the rest of them that its OUR money and they had better treat it accordingly or they too will face the gallows and deservedly so.
Theft of public funds by an elected official is an act of treason and MUST be dealt with as such. Just as giving aid and comfort to the enemy is treason so is helping undermine our financial and fiscal well being through deliberate misappropriation of public funds.
This includes tax give aways to corporations who fund election campaigns, the sponsorship scandal, Grant Devine's Sask PCs who filed phony bills and stole millions of taxpayers money as a result and this nice golden handshake for yet another "friend" of the Alberta PCs. I would add sending threatening letters to college students from high-priced law firms who ought to know better.