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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: can.politics,net.politics
Subject: Re: Deficits and Canada
Message-ID: <1002@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Jul-84 18:01:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.1002
Posted: Wed Jul 25 18:01:22 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Jul-84 20:52:16 EDT
References: <335@deepthot.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 48

******************
 >  Maybe you think Canadians have no business commenting on such matters
 >  of "internal" US politics -- but although we can't vote, your misgovernment

 >  hurts us probably more than it hurts you.
 >  
For a Canadian to accuse the Reagan administration of "misgovernment" (with 
regards to the deficit) seems to me to be somewhat hypocritical. The Canadian 
deficit is about $30 billion  of a total budget of about $60 billion ( all
figures are + or - a few $billion and are in Canadian "dollars"). Also when you

take into account the fact that the population of Canada is only 25 million, 
I think it becomes obvious who has been doing the misgoverning.
******************

After I posted the original of this, I wished that I had added that
US misgoverment hurts us more than does misgovernment from Ottawa,
because that is the real reason why Canadians take more interest
in US politics than in Canadian Federal politics.  In my view, the
main misgovernment in Ottawa has had to do with over-control by
the accountants and comptrollers as opposed to the workers in the
civil service, and with policies directed at aping Reaganomics without
seeming to do so.  The first factor depletes the civil service of
imaginative and resourceful people who COULD give good advice; the
second is probably the result.

You should also note that I did not claim that Reagan's deficits were
a sign of misgovernment.  My point was that Canadians are highly
susceptible to what goes on in the USA, but have no voice.  The first
part of the note was simply a statement of fact, fact that Reagan
apologists conveniently forget: the deficits are HIS and not due to
the Democrats.

It could be argued that deficits as such are irrelevant to the quality
of the government.  Deficits in a good cause may be highly desirable;
unpredicted and unwanted deficits probably are not (and remember that
Reagan neither expected nor wanted deficits to last so long into his term.
He even supported the idea of a Constitutional amendment to prohibit them.
I guess that might suggest a leetle misgoverment, mightn't it?)

From the "morning smile" in today's Globe and Mail (from memory):
It's a pity that all the people who really know how the country
should be governed are driving taxis, cutting hair, or waiting
on tables. (And writing to Usenet).
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt