The only thing as certain as death and taxes is governments' ability to waste your money.
Here's a few sorry examples of how our tax dollars have been put to work (if you can call it that), courtesy of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and its annual Teddy Awards.
The awards, which were announced Wednesday, roast the best of the worst at wasting your money.
Perhaps you might want to sit down before reading about the litany of corruption, waste and entitlement exemplified by these trough feeders:
- Chief Roger Redman of the Standing Buffalo First Nation, who paid himself more than the prime minister to oversee a reserve of 443 inhabitants, then padlocked the band office when members gathered to impeach him.
- Former Alberta tourism minister Christine Cusanelli, who took her mother and daughter to the London Olympics on the taxpayers' dime when the province cancelled a junket to the Games, leaving $113,000 worth of empty hotel rooms.
At least she paid the money back.
- The Toronto Maintenance and Skilled Trades Council, which charged the school district $143 to attach a pencil sharpener to a desk with four screws and $266 for hanging three pictures on a wall.
- Lifetime Achievement winner Bev Oda, who famously sipped $16-a-glass orange juice and upgraded to luxury hotels at taxpayer expense.
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which spent $826,000 on developing sausages that don't explode when you cook them.
No wonder people don't trust government or politicians.
- Managing Editor
Jon Manchester