Transcending Optics
Dumb, really dumb. Want to make an impression, to have people think you really care about the little guys - the ones who have to struggle uncompromisingly against the privileges accorded those among the higher echelons of life's kindly accommodations, attest to your sharing of their pain, your determination to have them see justice meted out by sharing their grim realities of life - share their pain.
On the other hand, if you feel like splurging publicly because, after all, your own good fortune entitles you to the luxuries in life denied those you represent, stifle the urge.
How about the decision to throw caution to the winds exercised by the New Democratic Party? Whose hierarchy in its great good wisdom decided to have themselves a right royal ball while in the process of struggling to unseat governmental policies whose outcome doesn't at all favour the interests of the working man and woman, and that great mass of the public whose income places them in the lower registers of the voting demographic.
A working retreat scheduled to take place at the Chateau Montebello, of all places? They must be feeling particularly giddy about themselves and their chances of success in bringing a bead of worried perspiration to government's overworked brow to feel that the inspirationally aesthetic surroundings of a pricey picturesque resort would do them just fine, thank you very much.
Where the ordinary operating fare at their lower-end accommodation runs alongside $350 per person per day. Forgot: includes a $21 breakfast and a buffet dinner coming in at $49.50. Downright bargain. An aide of party leader Jack Layton points out their success in obtaining a group discount so that the MPs and their staff members will be charged a mere $225 daily, plus meals.
After all, Members of Parliament whose salaries run at $158,800 surely deserve a certain style of accommodation. Or, as one NDP MP put it: "Who's to say the lumpen proletariat can't enjoy good linen?" Just kidding, of course, attempting to lighten the mood, cast some humour on the situation. In the process forgetting that earners of $159K annually aren't cast in the same mould as the lumpen proletariat, most of whom get by on something more like $33K.
Here's the party of the left, representatives of the smokestack industries of Canada, and the low-wage-earning majority who cling to NDP promises of a better life ahead for them, demonstrating the political deftness of a particular cerebral density. The party, moreover, that gets off on castigating the government over its tepid commitment to the environment.
Clearly, accommodation available within urban centres, affordably priced and readily accessed doesn't quite cut it. This "green-conscious" party chose to emulate the style of those whose wasteful lifestyles they decry, by booking their affair 75 kilometres from the seat of government, in the process sending additional environmental carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
Get it? It's a send-up, a symbolically sly message meant to highlight the the unworthiness of those politicians who waste government funding, despoil the environment, and bilk the taxpayer of fair expectations. Almost missed the message in the knee-jerk reaction of disbelief that our beloved left-of-left party would be so reckless as to deliver the wrong message.
Clever manoeuvre, that.
On the other hand, if you feel like splurging publicly because, after all, your own good fortune entitles you to the luxuries in life denied those you represent, stifle the urge.
How about the decision to throw caution to the winds exercised by the New Democratic Party? Whose hierarchy in its great good wisdom decided to have themselves a right royal ball while in the process of struggling to unseat governmental policies whose outcome doesn't at all favour the interests of the working man and woman, and that great mass of the public whose income places them in the lower registers of the voting demographic.
A working retreat scheduled to take place at the Chateau Montebello, of all places? They must be feeling particularly giddy about themselves and their chances of success in bringing a bead of worried perspiration to government's overworked brow to feel that the inspirationally aesthetic surroundings of a pricey picturesque resort would do them just fine, thank you very much.
Where the ordinary operating fare at their lower-end accommodation runs alongside $350 per person per day. Forgot: includes a $21 breakfast and a buffet dinner coming in at $49.50. Downright bargain. An aide of party leader Jack Layton points out their success in obtaining a group discount so that the MPs and their staff members will be charged a mere $225 daily, plus meals.
After all, Members of Parliament whose salaries run at $158,800 surely deserve a certain style of accommodation. Or, as one NDP MP put it: "Who's to say the lumpen proletariat can't enjoy good linen?" Just kidding, of course, attempting to lighten the mood, cast some humour on the situation. In the process forgetting that earners of $159K annually aren't cast in the same mould as the lumpen proletariat, most of whom get by on something more like $33K.
Here's the party of the left, representatives of the smokestack industries of Canada, and the low-wage-earning majority who cling to NDP promises of a better life ahead for them, demonstrating the political deftness of a particular cerebral density. The party, moreover, that gets off on castigating the government over its tepid commitment to the environment.
Clearly, accommodation available within urban centres, affordably priced and readily accessed doesn't quite cut it. This "green-conscious" party chose to emulate the style of those whose wasteful lifestyles they decry, by booking their affair 75 kilometres from the seat of government, in the process sending additional environmental carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
Get it? It's a send-up, a symbolically sly message meant to highlight the the unworthiness of those politicians who waste government funding, despoil the environment, and bilk the taxpayer of fair expectations. Almost missed the message in the knee-jerk reaction of disbelief that our beloved left-of-left party would be so reckless as to deliver the wrong message.
Clever manoeuvre, that.
Labels: Inconvenient Politics, Life's Like That
posted by Pieface | 1:30 PM
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