Leftie Activists Don't Want To Let Go Of Your Tax Dollar

We usually complain that Harper's government lets too many wasteful spending items slip through the cracks. The lefties however are furious that they can no longer suck on the taxpayer's tit:

In their view, unless leftist advocacy is funded by the federal government, with billions of tax dollars, there are no other legitimate voices in Canada, no valuable opinions exist beyond theirs, and democracy is under serious threat. On the contrary, an end to preferential funding for left-wing ideologies, such as feminism and “social justice”, will expose Canadians to more representative public discourse.

The Left Mobilizes

Liberal MP caucus members, Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre) and Ken Dryden (York Centre), have organized a series of forums on Parliament Hill, where liberal left groups can “tell their stories” about their powerlessness and fears, as a result of government funding cuts. Michael Ignatieff called government cuts the “chilling of NGOs” and compared the situation in Canada to Cuba and Bulgaria. Ken Dryden claimed that it is “unhealthy and undemocratic” for governments to refuse funding to groups which disagree with government policy.

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Heh... They should have read the Conservative forums and see how many nasty special interest groups still get the lion share of their budget from the state coffers. Oh, well... I guess we just can't expect a minority government to defund them all. Still, bringing in zero-based budgeting, even as a pilot project in the non-essential departments, could help the government get rid of the remaining wasteful spending without being accused of censoring the opponents. Let it be up to the NGOs to explain what they need the money for and why it should come from the government and not from individual contributors.