Deconstructing the Conservative motto

Our government's motto is 'Jobs, Growth, Prosperity'. Everything they talk about is based on those 3 things. So I thought about it long and hard and I'm coming up short on how exactly our government is making these things happen.

Let's start with jobs. Are there any new jobs? Yes, there have been jobs created over the past few years, but they have all been in the private sector. Many of them are part-time jobs, which is good for business, not so good for the worker. Oh, sorry, I forgot about the jobs being given to temporary foreign workers. There's a few of those. Are there any new public sector jobs? If there are, nobody's talking about them. There is a lot of talk about disappearing public sector jobs though. Contracts cancelled. Offices closed. So how the government is creating jobs is outside of my scope of comprehension.

Next we have growth. A very vague word if you ask me. Growth in what? Jobs? We already covered that. So what growth are we talking about? The economy? I see growth in prisons. I see growth in the oil sands. [long dramatic pause] I can list a myriad of things not experiencing growth though. Transportation infrastructure on a national scale. Education accessibility. Science. Alternative energy. Green technology. Political compromise. Senate reform. No growth to be found. Nothing to see...... please move along.

Lastly we have my favourite - prosperity. Oh my goodness do we ever have prosperity in droves eh? I don't know about you, but I have so much money, I'm doing all my renovations, going on vacations multiple times per year, buying cars like they're going out of style and sending all my kids to university. Twice. No? Not representative of your situation? Well, I lied. Me neither. Let's be clear - I'm not doing badly, but I'm certainly not in a financial position where I'm funding all the things I need or want funded. Let's just leave it at that. But do you know who is making out like gangbusters? The top 10%. Holy smokes. These folks are rolling in it. Big corporations are raking in record profits. Recession? They didn't really notice it. How could they? The current Canadian business climate, at least for big business, is the most tax-friendly it's been in decades and the companies making the most money (oil & gas) are subsidized to the teeth. So we can put a great big tick mark in that check box. But are they sharing this prosperity? Are workers getting a fair, living wage? You're kidding, right?

So, I think this government needs a new motto. Let's see....... how about Honesty, Accountability and Open-ness? That's another post entirely.