The borrow-and-spend Conservatives keep digging a deeper hole as their $1.1-billion G8/G20 boondoggle reaches absurd proportions:
1. Legacy toilet: Tony Clement spent $274,000 of the G8 Legacy Fund on a bathroom upgrade in Lake of Bays, a full 20 kilometres from the G8 meeting location in Deerhurst – which means Stephen Harper has no excuse for missing the G8 photo-op this time.
2. Fiddlers and flowers: The Conservatives spared no expense while lavishing $20 million on preparatory meetings leading up to the G8/G20 – milking taxpayers for meals, floral arrangements, dancing, singing and fiddling. While they have blacked out the details on $15.7 million of the spending, we know that $120,000 was spent to fly summit support staff to Yellowknife, $31,000 to meet in Victoria, $12,000 to tour the Winter Carnival and Quebec City, and $22,000 for floral arrangements at the venue of an $11,000-dinner for G8 foreign ministers. (Ottawa Sun)
3. G20 and the Christian right-wing conspiracy: Who owns the domain for www.g20.ca? None other than Stephen Harper’s close advisor, Christian fundamentalist leader Charles McVety, promoting a “Summit of Faith and Business Leaders” to be held at the same time as the G20, and featuring none other than Karl Rove, the architect of George W. Bush’s election campaigns.
4. #G20fakerumours: A top trending topic on twitter yesterday, here are some of the best G20 tweets:
• Stephen Harper apologizes to everyone for the inconvenience
• Forget the police – half of G20 security budget to be spent locating and hiring Jack Bauer
• Instead of a sound cannon, the RCMP is going to use John Baird to disrupt protesters because he is louder
• The 1 billion allocated for G20 security will actually be spent on a downtown-relief subway line
• 80% of G20 security price tag will be used to distribute fluffy kittens to subdue protesters
• G20 Toronto to be cancelled after major technological development; leaders to meet remotely via new tool called “Internet.”
5. Canadians favour having climate change on the agenda: A poll by Nanos research found that climate change was the top issue Canadians want to see addressed at the G8/G20, favoured by 33.7 percent of those polled. Stephen Harper has resisted all calls to put climate change on the agenda, in a likely attempt to distract from Canada’s miserable climate change record.
