Is it not time to demand accountability?

       Let’s review our nagging, on-going dialogue about big government and the call for accountability with our governments’ spending practices. Here’s an equation that Canadians should know well enough, especially after having just completed their income tax filing this week.  

Big Government* = Ever-Increasing Taxes

(* – synonymous with out-of-control-spending, mismanaged budgets and bulging bureaucracies)

       Many will claim this is nothing but a cynical and simplistic view of our Canadian governments. Perhaps so. It is certainly cynical for it smacks of irritation for what is transpiring here in Canada – and elsewhere in debt-ladened United States and Europe.

       It is a sad reality that today, because of our Big Government, Canadian families are spending more money on taxes than on food, clothing, and shelter combined.  The Fraser Institute reported earlier this week that in 2012, 42.7 per cent of an average family’s income went towards taxes (including all types of taxes imposed by federal, provincial, and local governments). Canadians spent less than that – 36.9 per cent – on food, clothing, and shelter combined. Read this for yourself: SAD.

       Today we brace ourselves for Ontario’s budget announcements. Really, what more can the McGuinty/Wynne Government throw at Ontarians? This sorry Government has a record that screams mismanagement: ORNGE scandal, eHealth Ontario boondoogle, a $585 million price tag to cancel a gas plant during the past election. Then there are the costs of the Liberal’s Green Energy Act that will smack Ontarians with energy hikes of 40–50% in the next few years. Under the Liberal era, Ontarians’ debt load has almost doubled to $250-billion – and in a few years, we will be suffering worst fates than Greece’s current financial mess. With this quagmire, what can we expect as far as Ontario taxes are concerned? The only relief we might be spared today is due to the fact an election is in the wind. So, the Liberals will settle for kicking the can a little further down the road…

       Our By George question to ponder: Why are Canadians so apathetic when it comes to demanding fiscal responsibility of their politicians and their governments?

       Our point is simply that there needs to be greater accountability. As Big Government gets bigger – accountability is becoming critical.  There would be few complaints in paying “our fair share” of taxes if Canadians were witness to responsible government spending and a fiscal accountability within both political and bureaucratic circles. What is agitating for many, though, is the knowledge that there are gross wastes in government spending and we only know a small fraction of the whole story.

       Today our national debt has climbed over $600 billion. Every day Canadians are paying more to service that debt. We live with growing, multiple levels of bureaucracies, over-governed and over-regulated. Our government has never been bigger – and it keeps getting bigger.  Is it not time to discuss government accountability and a fiscally responsible approach to digging out?  Is it not time to start questioning where our taxes are going and demanding answers from both our politicians and bureaucrats?