Let’s settle on a definition when discussing Big Government. For us, “Big Government” is a term used to describe a government that is too big and insidiously involved in too many areas of private enterprise and personal affairs. It’s excessive and largely inefficient. Its size and growth are uncontrollable and its expense is indefensible. Most troubling, its bureaucracy is unaccountable to the public and private sector.
One of my greatest grievances is that Big Government’s policy makers and bureaucrats champion programs that should remain with the private sector or private organizations (such as non-profit associations). Big Government programs install large bureaucracies lacking in accountability, and often the program objectives will become blurred over time and mutate to something over-reaching and, in that way, program costs will significantly increase in the long term. (Admittedly, I am painting a worse-case scenario. However, we only need look at our current governments and their programs to see perfect examples of government/bureaucracy-out-of-control).
Sadly, in Canada, we have come to expect our government to get involved in all social issues and in many private ones. As Canadians, we have an inherited trust of government. And, I’ll maintain, it is from this trust that our public has been sleep-walking into a nightmarish existence where Kafkaesque government activities will routinely be rationalized, tolerated and soon forgotten.
So, where does Big Government end? How do we stop a run away train (and, given our current fiscal realities, I suggest one that is on a short-track)? I believe we need to apply checks and balances on our bloated, insensitive government. We need to discuss the serious ramifications of Big Government; which is what we have begun in the By George Journal….
