I agree completely with the wise admonitions contained in Valerie Brill’s open letter to PM Justin Trudeau “Help Canadians First” on Feb. 9.
Charity is of the highest and noblest of qualities, but it should begin at home.
Apart from telling our veterans that they were asking for more than his government could afford (they didn’t ask for much, just fairness), leaving First Nations Reserves without potable water for over five years, First Nations houses in uninhabitable conditions due to black mold, seniors having to do with very little and Canada becoming the global laughing stock because of his shenanigans, there is much more.
In his insatiable thirst for glory and global recognition, including his consuming drive for a cherished seat on the UN Security Council, here is a short list of our tax dollars pledged or donated to various causes as part of his narcissistic popularity campaign:
At the G7, he offered $500 million to education around the world, $180 million to the Global European Partnership, but nothing to our education shortfalls here at home.
Trudeau pledged $241 million to global family planning and $300 million to the Bill and Hilary Clinton Foundation. He refused funds to our veterans but found money to build new housing for the Afghanistan Army.
He pledged $2.65 million to climate change at the Commonwealth Leaders Summit and has to bully the provinces for his carbon tax to help pay for it.
He pledged $300 million for the Rohingya refugees, but neglects our own crisis at the Quebec border. He gave $125 million to Caribbean reconstruction, $560 million to sexual and reproductive health in Haiti, Africa and the Middle East for accessible abortions; $50 million to Palestine for food relief, $840 million to Syria for humanitarian assistance, when First Nations, veterans and seniors at home are neglected.
He gave $10.5 million to a convicted terrorist and another $30.8 million to three others who said that they were wrongfully detained in other countries.
He spent $4.5 billion on a 65-year-old pipeline that’s now shut down, and he may have to give it away. He spent $8 million on a skating rink of Parliament Hill when the Rideau Canal skating extravaganza is just down the street. He got India to invest $250 million in Canada, but we had to invest $750 million in India first.
He pledged $50 million for a charitable cause to a talk show host that he wanted to impress, just out of the blue. He’s replacing our used F18 fighter jets with used Australian F18s. And there’s more than can be included in one letter.
That is just the short list of where our money is going, placing taxpayers, their children and grandchildren in deep debt for decades to come.
We haven’t even yet touched on Trudeau’s troubling ethical problems, deplorable international relations, sinking Canadian reputation, serious developing scandals and political incompetence.
Stay tuned.
Good thing that 2019 is a federal election year.
Simon Guillet
New Sudbury