In the Conservative handguide to winning friends and influencing journalists, the government will no longer be offering free coffee for the media in the national press gallery:
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is underlining his claim that he is determined to put Ottawa’s finances back in order by doing away with free coffee for the national press gallery during the six-hour sneak peak at the March 22 federal budget.
The move will save the federal government $4,000, officials said.
Well, you’ve got to start cutting somewhere, right? Oh, dear…
The Conservative government is planning a $100-million national celebration to mark the bicentennial of the War of 1812 next year.
$100,000,000
$4,000
You do the math.
Excuse me, I would like to spend $$$ on the War of 1812, not coffee. My ancestors served in that war. We spend a lot on other cultural days. This is a good one. They could take the $$$ from the ad budget for reminding us about infrastructure projects.
Gravy Train:It sounds like some journos feel entitled to free drinks and snacks.
I remember a clip of some lefty City councillor in a huff when Rob Ford cancelled the tax funded drinks too.
According to regulations regarding income tax it may qualify as a taxable benefit and an expense for the employer.
The government 4k tax meal included events x 500 may be a tax liability they are ending.
I am confident the CBC can soak the taxpayer for their 20+staff submitting lattes no worries. It will the private papers that will absorb and pass on to shareholders.
Seeing as they are media I think they should be charged admission. Let them pay to be a part of that circle jerk called the parliamentary press gallery.
Screw’em. Everyone knows that no matter how good a budget is presented the media will rip it. Let’em whine on their own dime.
“Excuse me, I would like to spend $$$ on the War of 1812″
No, you want everyone else to spend $$$ on it.
“This is a good one.”
Celebrating war is perverse.
“$100,000,000
$4,000
You do the math.”
What do you expect, Adrian. They do this sort of thing because they know their brainwashed followers will still vote for them.
The “so called” reporters over at the CBC should pay for their own coffee.CBC already gets over a BILLION DOLLARS of TAXPAYERS money and won’t comply with access to information laws to look at where the money is being spent. Let the CBC pay for their reporters coffee. The media just smear and dig for dirt and twist all their stories anyways. They don’t deserve anything from TAXPAYERS. Its bad enough they print lies and half truths, and now they want perks for that? Good for the Govt. The gravy train is over and Conservative Rob Ford is cutting off the Liberal leeches too. Let the Liberal party pay…oops, there broke.
It’s not about free coffee (of course). It’s a pathetic token cost-cutting gesture that does nothing to save any real money. The Conservatives can spend $100 million every time they blow their noses.
I’m a little curious, given your stated opinions of the usefulness of the media. How else would you prefer to get your news? Do you think the media should be abolished? Perhaps we should set up a system whereby the government simply tells you the news?
I’m reminded of an article that I read once that looked into the benefit to a company of providing free coffee to office employees. The short version is that free coffee makes people feel better far in excess of what the coffee costs. Interestingly, giving people lousy free coffee had the opposite effect. They’ll drink it, but they’ll be mad you gave them lousy coffee. And paying a premium for amazing Americanos isn’t worth it. The best choice is to serve a good cup of no-nonsense coffee.
Now that’s not talking about free coffee for the press, but cutting the press gallery coffee service isn’t going to convince me that the Conservatives are actually cutting excess costs in any significant way. They’ve got a long, long, LONG way to go to make up for the indefensible spending on the G20.
Maybe if there was a free bar with free drinks the journalists would let their guard down long enough to write something positive about the budget or the Conservatives LOL. ( Humour and cynicism intended so don’t get too upset or take this too seriously )
Sure it small and petty to not give free coffee but maybe the Conservatives have few reasons to want to be nice to journalist ?
Maybe it’s the wrong tactic, counterproductive and being nice instead with journalists would suddenly buy some fair and impartial coverage ?
Possibly unfair to many ethical journalists but the public view of journalists is down there with politicians, lawyers and used car salesmen ! Not that one can’t aspire to be one of the ” good ones ” as I’m sure is your goal.
I haven’t done the arithmetic, but I’m guessing that should save enough to cover a few seconds’ worth of the never-ending Economic Action Plan advertising.
Okay, on the one hand everyone complains that Canadians don’t know/care about their own history. But then if they actually spend the money to properly commemorate the 200 year anniversary of the last major war between Canada and the USA and one of the defining moments in Canadian (and American) history, we’re going to complain about the cost??
I suppose when the 200th anniversary of the founding of Canada comes around you’ll oppose any sort of celebration altogether? But hey, I have an idea, lets stop teaching history altogether, I’m sure that’ll save money. Making history interesting so that our children will want to learn about it is just a waste of time anyways, its better for them to grow up without learning of our Canadian heritage and just playing computer games all day.
The coffee is a symbolic gesture on par with buying a new pair of shoes (a traditional act that the Finance Minister always performs before presenting a new budget). Its not meant to be a serious cost savings measure and the cost of the 1812 commemoration is justifiable.
The cost is only too much if the economic spin offs of tourism and other foreign or domestic business doesn’t come in revenue neutral or at least close enough that the deficit would be worth the ” cultural & educational ” benefits: The ” Devil ” is in the details when judging if it’s wasted tax money or not !?
That Harper, what a mistake. We lost a lot when that party dropped the Progressive part. Why, Harper should look to Third World cultures for examples. How about using that free coffee as a way to poison the Bolshevik press corps? Or at least have them cut down with a sudden attack by armed retainers using the axe and hammer, just like King of Scotland did to the Vikings. Harper is no ideological conservative, that is for sure. Same old same old Canadian culture. Yawn.
Mind you, the lavish spending on the Arts is always welcome. This 1812 stuff is just an excuse to hire on no talent ‘artist’ relatives of party cadre, those medicated ones who cannot hold down a decent job in a bank or car dealership. Keep them off the street. This is good. These no talent Artsies need to keep apart from the regular welfare scum, otherwise the welfare scum eat them. You learn things growing up on a farm. And, and this is a big ‘And’, Glorifying War is always a powerful theme for the arts. That money printing of Obama is very much like the money printing of the Weimar Republic; Obama is about as popular as the Weimar Republic; and history is very consistent about what happens next. Brainwashing our military age youth (boys and girls this time: a vast improvement over what Mussolini or Franco had to work with), our future factory workers, and the real leaders of our country (accountants, librarians, and actuaries) would be a good idea right now. So, you cannot fault Harper for that. If anything, not spending more.
But, no, you are correct. Harper is no ideological creature, but one of those sly Princes out of the Renaissance, without the Borgia. Alas.
$100 million to celebrate a war the BRITISH army fought seems a bit much to me.
Commemorating a 200 year old war is childish and stupid. Blowing 100 million on this folly is a insult to overtaxed Canadians. If they go ahead with this the British damned well pay for it, as they fought the war and Canada as we know it did’nt even exist. The 100 million may be a small pittance to these fools but that is money stolen from paycheques across the country.
$100,000,000? What a prime example of Kate MacMillan’s aphorism that the country is run by crazy people.
Adrian, you obviously don’t know your War of 1812 history…
Eric, to say the war of 1812 was fought by Canadian soldiers is ridiculous. I’ll wager not one was born in the colony.
“Celebrating a war”? Or commemorating history? Points to consider:
1. This was the last war on Canadian soil involving the repulse of a foreign invader (the Americans).
2. Combatants included settlers from both French Canada and the UEL, many of whom *were* born in the future Canada and whose descendants are still active. Thus, the War is a marker on establishing a unique Canadian identity.
3. Britain had abolished the importation of Africans into slavery in 1807, and during this war many slaves from the US fled to Eastern Canada, settling in the Maritimes. American demands for the return of this population added to the frustrations that led to the U.S. Civil War.
4. The strain of holding Canada during an American invasion was one of the factors leading Lord Durham to recommend granting Canada more autonomy to Queen Victoria.
Like it or not, 1812 *was* a milestone in Canadian history, and as such merits commemoration.
$100-million? Contrast that with $200-million in security costs, alone, for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Or the $1.5 billion spent on Expo 86.
I don’t think we need to spend $100 million to commemorate an important moment in our history. $100 million is no small change. It could go toward literally a million more important things. I don’t think $2 million would be offensive. This is fifty times that much.