You gotta waste money to get elected

Ontario is doing something really stupid right now.  The Conservative government has decided that we shouldn't take part in the carbon tax plan that the Canadian government is going with, so Ontario is being flooded with ads bashing the plan.  The ads basically talk about how the carbon tax is taking money away from families, and that Ontario has a better plan.  Spoiler:  Ontario does not have a better plan and the money is paid back to people anyway because the carbon plan is revenue neutral.

The TV ads have pictures of people doing normal things when out of nowhere money starts falling out of their pockets, showering the ground with coins.  The hapless people look on in dismay as their wealth rolls away, helpless before the power of taxation.  Naturally the ads don't show the money flowing back into their pockets later, even though that is what will happen.

It makes me so bitter to see this.  It should be absolutely illegal for the government to spend public funds to bash other political parties, but that is what is happening.  The Liberals are in charge federally, so the provincial Conservatives waste money advertising that the Liberal carbon tax plan is hurting families.  They don't *say* the word Liberal, or Conservative, but there is no doubt in anyone's mind that what is going on here, and even if there were doubt, the idea that it is appropriate for the provincial government to buy advertising time to complain about federal policy is ludicrous.

This is what we get for voting in a buffoon with no policy platform.  We get idiotic moves to 'save money' that are implemented foolishly and end up costing more money than they save.  We have a premier who simply does not understand anything that he is doing, but is so convinced of his right to rule that he thinks he doesn't *need* to understand.

Just do whatever dumbass thing you want, and ignore the consequences.  It is all about the show, after all, not about careful consideration of the results.  Like, for example, the gutting of public education and massive increases in classroom size - it saves a few bucks now, but results in a serious reduction in educational quality.  We know that long term good public education is an amazing investment that pays for itself many times over, but that isn't relevant to the current government - they need that money to give to big companies, you see. 

Wealthy investors need their payouts now, and the consequences of a less educated population are years away, and that is apparently all you need to know.

This is a classic example of a position I have held for years now about 'small government' and 'responsible budgeting' platforms.  They are all bullshit.  Every government will spend money, often foolishly.  You *cannot* choose responsible financial policy, no one offers that.

What you can choose is *how* they waste money.  And the Conservatives want to waste it by giving it to the rich and buying ads to talk about how we shouldn't try to prevent climate change.  Anything would be better.