Politicians, no matter which party they hide out in, are forever taking polls to find out just what they have to give us to insure their continued life of privilege at the bottomless public trough.
They don’t seem to get it, that the reason for widespread disgust with all politicians is they promise us the gold mine in order to get elected but once ensconced in office they give us the shaft.
All the polls on what the public expects of government add up to the same basic thing, we want the government to make us happy. Where politicians fall down on the job is their abject failure to provide this service.
I’ve thrown all the polls I could find into the blender, and here in simple language is the sum of all our wants.
1) Cut income taxes by 20%, and abolish the GST.
2) Bring our hospitals up to par and add dental care and prescription drugs to the health care system.
3) Hire thousands of new police officers, and overhaul the whole judicial system.
4) Give us efficient public transit with lower fares.
5) Double the size of the military and provide it with state-of-the-art weaponry.
6) Build enough affordable housing for all low-income people, and provide shelter, food and clothing for the homeless.
7) Build bigger prisons and hire enough guards to ensure that are run crime free.
8) Give enough money to our athletes so they can win big-time in the Olympics.
9) Bigger, tax breaks and subsidies for opera, ballet, symphonies, museums and art galleries.
10) Instruct all places of entertainment, sports and education to sell good nourishing food.
11) Cut automobile and house insurance rates by 50%.
12) Introduce a 35-hour workweek and make the first Monday of every month a statutory holiday.
13) Double employment Insurance benefits and extend payments to two years.
14) Abolish the mandatory retirement age, and allow optional retirement with full benefits at 50.
15) Allow farmers to produce all the food they can and send the surplus to the third world in lieu of foreign aid cash.
16) Give every new mother or father two years paid maternity/paternity leave.
17) Hire all the teachers we need and limit class sizes to ten students.
18) Elect or abolish the Senate.
19) Restrict a prime minister’s term to four years.
20) Spread the various federal departments around the country as follows:
Indian Affairs and Northern Development: Iqaluit.
The official residence of the Governor General:
Victoria. Citizenship and Immigration: Calgary. Agriculture:
Regina. Canada Post:
Winnipeg. Finance:
Toronto. National Health and Welfare:
Montreal. (Veterans Affairs is already based in Charlottetown.)
The Supreme Court: Saint John.
Foreign Affairs: Halifax.
Oceans and Fisheries: St.John’s.
Leave the House of Commons and the Defence Department in Ottawa.
As you can see, there’s no need to waste any more money on stupid polls.
So, don’t just stand there like a bump on a log, Mr. Prime Minister, do the right Canadian thing and form a committee to study these
suggestions.
CFP “Poet in Residence” William Bedford was born in Dublin, Ireland, but has lived in Toronto for most of his life. His poems and articles have been published in many Canadian journals and in some American publications.
