Signs of the Times and Harper's Permanent Markers

The Canadian Press has learned that several Conservative cabinet ministers expressed the desire to make the Canada Action Plan signs permanent.

Those temporary Economic Action Plan signs promoting federal stimulus projects have proved so popular with Conservative cabinet ministers that some want to make them permanent. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press reveal that a formal recommendation for a “permanent signage” program went to Prime Minister Stephen Harper last Dec. 17 — at the request of his ministers.

“Interest has been expressed by ministers in the placement of permanent signage at selected, completed Economic Action Plan (EAP) project sites,” says the opening line of a 12-page memo to the prime minister dated Dec. 17, 2010. “If you agree, we will work with departments and your office to ensure implementation of the guidelines.”

The proposal was rejected, but they got around it by opting for plaques instead, like this one in Tony Clement's riding. A permanent reminder that he paved roads to nowhere.

But what the plaques don't tell you is that the Harper government handled the planting of signs like the Gestapo.

The federal government is taking flak for its extensive use of "Canada's Economic Action Plan" signs marking infrastructure projects Ottawa has supported. Halifax NDP MP Megan Leslie spoke out against a sign the Harper government had installed on an uninhabited island in Halifax Harbour. "There's no one over there," Leslie said Wednesday. "This government is obsessed with, 'We need to get credit for this.' It's all about political games."

The signs, which are seen at a range of projects across Canada, only acknowledge federal support, though it is often the case that other levels of government have contributed. Cathy McCarthy, a member of the Friends of McNabs Island Society, said they had to install the sign, take a photograph of it and note the GPS coordinates to get the $73,500 in federal funding.

And despite the fact that the funding came from three levels of government, no Harper sign, no tax dollars.

So what next? No public funds unless you name the project after King Steve?

The Harper Highway to Texas? The Harper School for the Ignorant Masses?

I Can't Imagine Why Harper's Base is Condoning This

When the Reform Party was created more than two decades ago, it was out of a deemed necessity that there should be a party in Canada who would do things differently. They were frustrated with Brian Mulroney and his culture of entitlement.

And as Brian Mulroney held high court in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel’s Café de Paris*, handing out contracts and positions to cronies, they cried foul. The deficit rose, the debts grew and their interests were ignored.

So they were going to create a party that would be fiscally responsible, principled and populist. Where their needs would come first. Where government expenses would be trimmed and cronyism made a thing of the past.

And what did they get for their loyalty?

A party that outspends any other. That takes patronage and cronyism to extremes, while ignoring the needs of the populace. That has taken government waste to unheard of levels and has become so corrupt that it's mind boggling.

The battle cry is no longer 'The West Wants In', but 'Canadians want in'. 'Taxpayers Want in'.

As we learn that the Canada Action Plan was nothing more than a giant ad campaign and never ending photo-ops, you need to ask yourself: "Is this what I voted for?"

Some small community groups say the Conservative government that demanded Economic Action Plan signs be installed at their project sites within a week of delivery is now months behind in reimbursement of project expenses. Adding insult to injury is a federal funding contract that promises to reimburse groups for signs, plaques, bunting and a ribbon-cutting ceremony with politicians - but won't pay interest on money borrowed to keep the stimulus projects underway.

The money went for signs first, community second, Canadians last. Our money.

The contract - which requires recipient groups to submit photos of their Economic Action Plan signs - says eligible expenses for signage include maximum costs of $2,250 for a small sign and $4,250 for a large sign. Another $2,500 can be charged for a "permanent plaque." The club can expense rental fees on chairs, flagpoles, a public-address system and a stage, and can charge Ottawa for light refreshments and snacks (no booze), printing and mailing of invitations, and media kits.

Is this principled? Signs, bunting and plaques? If this was the old Reform guys or even the Progressive Conservatives before Mulroney, there would have been howls of protest.

So where is the indignation? Where are the protests? How is this defensible?

And what about the orgy of spending for the G-20?

The enormous tax increases on average Canadians, while reducing taxes for the wealthy? This doesn't bother you? How is that possible?

Or bailing out the banks? Would you have voted for that?

Or the horrible treatment of our veterans?

I can't imagine any original Reform Party member condoning this. I already know that the majority of Progressive Conservatives do not.

Just once I would like to hear someone from your camp give an honest opinion. Because this is not a principled, fiscally responsible government and I doubt it what's you had in mind when you signed up.

Stephen Harper won't listen to us, but he might listen to you. Or are you afraid to ask?

*On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years, By Stevie Cameron, Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1994, ISBN: 0-921912-73-0

Stephen Harper and All Those Signs

Since we now know that the Canada Action Plan was nothing more than a very expensive ad campaign, courtesy of Guy Giorno, we shouldn't be surprised to learn that Stephen Harper tracked his signs, but could care less about how, or if, the stimulus was working.

In fact he even put plunking down signs above inspecting our food. We could be poisoned to death, but so long as our last memory was of some damn sign, we could die happy.

OTTAWA - Civil servants across Canada were ordered by the Harper government to document every single sign posted anywhere promoting the federal economic stimulus plan, The Canadian Press has learned. They've spent countless hours tracking every one of more than 8,500 signs posted since last summer, when the urgent, weekly exercise was ordered by the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic support arm of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office. It continues to this day.

Eighteen departments and agencies are involved, including the country's over-stretched food inspection agency, fisheries and oceans officials, health, public safety and environment workers and Parks Canada employees. The signage database, at the request of PCO, includes the total number of projects that require an "Economic Action Plan" sign, the number of signs already installed, the number of signs remaining to be installed and the number of signs ordered. PCO also demanded to know the anticipated installation dates for uninstalled signs. The tracking exercise generated thousands of pages of documentation over a six-month period at a single Crown corporation, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation documents obtained under the access to information law.

He didn't even care where they were made. Just stuck 'em in the ground and demand that we genuflect every time we walk by one. For Ontarians, it was like Mike Harris redux. For all other Canadians, it was 1984.

So I decided in his honour to post my own little sign: