Albertans will be familiar with this pattern.
The legislative house is not sitting, so the government goes ahead and starts slashing away at things that it wants to attack but knows that the opposition would have a field day with.
Per se, the two programs that they cut are well off the public radar - if you don't live in the arts community, you've probably never even heard of them. They aren't particularly big either - a few million dollars is all. But then again, the cuts they made in 2006 were of relatively small programs too (the Court Challenges Program was only $5 million)
For the Conservatives to attack the arts programs in Canada on the heels of announcing that they were leasing heavy helicopters for Afghanistan use at $36 million should come as little surprise. For reasons I have never understood, Alberta seems to have spawned a breed of conservatism that views the arts as tertiary on the list of priorities.
However, it's not the priorities of the government that I'm annoyed by here - it is the fact that this government has continued to repeat the patterns that Ralph Klein established in Alberta. Do as much as possible via Order in Council, and as little as possible in the legislature. There is little doubt that Ralph was successful doing this - but it is the least open and accountable form of government you can have. ... and coming from a party that ran on a platform of open and accountable government, that's pretty much a slap in the face to Canadian voters.
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