Western Standard - CORY' RANT： History of waste from the governor general’s office.

When are we going to put our foot down and defund the outdated and almost insulting institution of the Governor General in Canada? Governor General Julie Payette resigned in disgrace just a little over a year ago after a tumultuous three and a half years as Canada s first female Governor General. Her term was marked by entitlement, extravagant waste, staff abuse, and laziness.

00:00:00.000 it's time to defund the Governor General. How long do we have to keep spending millions to

00:00:06.000 enable a series of pompous appointed ribbon cutters to shamelessly waste our tax dollars 1.00

00:00:11.340 on frivolous luxuries? When are we going to put our foot down and defund the outdated and almost

00:00:16.200 insulting institution of the Governor General in Canada? Governor General Julie Payette, for

00:00:22.020 example, resigned in disgrace just a little over a year ago after a tumultuous three and a half

00:00:26.640 years as Governor General. Her term was marked by entitlement, extravagant waste, staff abuse,

00:00:32.920 and I would say even laziness. Payette caused issues early in her role when she whined about having to 1.00

00:00:38.200 move her schedule in June of 2018 in order to sign a bill into law. Signing bills into law is literally

00:00:44.120 her most important role, but she didn't like troubling herself with it. Payette liked the

00:00:48.760 attention she garnered as Governor General, but chafed under the actual tasks and obligations,

00:00:52.880 and she was engaged in constant battles with the government as she tried to reduce her workload in 1.00

00:00:57.120 that first year. Payette did dive into design and renovations as a hobby, though, as her small palace 0.99

00:01:03.740 at Rideau Hall was, uh, she pissed away 140,000 tax dollars to study having a new staircase built. 0.99

00:01:12.800 And why did she need this new private staircase? Well, because she wanted to be able to navigate

00:01:16.420 through that hall without actually coming into contact with any of the unwashed who sometimes 1.00

00:01:21.060 pass through the building on tours and visitors. Yeah. The final straw came when Payette, uh, was a,

00:01:27.340 when it was exposed, how she'd been chronically abusive with her staff, and that working on her

00:01:31.420 entourage was proving to be one of the most toxic jobs to be had in Ottawa. She was, uh, just a nasty, 1.00

00:01:37.360 nasty person. The history of taxpayer waste by Governor General's, though, is long and storied. 0.98

00:01:42.480 Think of a former CBC personality, Adrienne Clarkson. She was notorious with her high spending in 0.85

00:01:47.920 the role. On one single tour to Arctic nations, Clarkson blew 5 million tax dollars. Not a huge

00:01:54.060 dent in her nearly $20 million annual budget at the time, though. Clarkson billed, and still bills,

00:02:00.180 $100,000 a year for office expenses. Yeah, still now. And, uh, she's soaked taxpayers for office 0.97

00:02:07.060 expenses for over a million dollars since she retired. This is on top of the massive pension she 0.93

00:02:11.860 gets, of course. You see, a lot of people don't know this, but every Governor General gets an expense

00:02:16.100 account on the taxpayers for the rest of their life. And it's not that they should need it. They're

00:02:21.340 paid nearly $300,000 a year. And while they're in office, they have every expense, from housing to

00:02:26.400 clothing to travel, all paid for by the taxpayers. Their salary pretty much just goes right into the

00:02:31.140 bank. Now, Justin Trudeau appointed Mary Simon to the role of Governor General almost a year ago, and it

00:02:37.160 appears she's embraced the role of largesse, waste, and entitlement quickly. On a trip to the Middle East last

00:02:42.520 March, Simon and her entourage managed to rack up a $93,000 bill, $93,000, just for catering on the 0.83

00:02:50.580 military jet she used for the trip. While I can understand the Governor General needn't suffer

00:02:55.580 through a long flight with little more than a tiny bag of roasted peanuts to sustain herself,

00:02:59.800 as the commoners do, I would think she could have fed her entourage at less than $3,000 a head. 1.00

00:03:06.080 Now, technically, the Governor General is Canada's head of state, the most powerful person in the

00:03:11.140 country. No legislation can actually pass without the approval of the Queen's representative. In

00:03:16.620 reality, though, the roles evolved into nothing beyond a ceremonial one. If a Governor General

00:03:21.460 actually refused to sign a bill into law, it would be the day we'd start working towards becoming a

00:03:25.740 republic rather than a constitutional monarchy. Perhaps that wouldn't be a bad move, but it's not

00:03:29.900 going to happen anytime soon. We currently have a woke federal government that panders to extreme 1.00

00:03:35.020 activists who refer to Canadians as settlers and demand decolonization, whatever that means.

00:03:39.600 Ironically, though, the greatest symbol we have of colonialism and settlement is the office of the

00:03:44.760 Governor General. It indicates we're still beholden and subservient to a foreign power.

00:03:49.900 It would take a complete constitutional revamping to get rid of the office of the Governor General,

00:03:53.660 and I don't see that happening. We can cut the budget to the bone, though. Would it be impossible

00:03:58.840 to find a person to sit in the role of handshakes and ceremonies for a salary of $200,000? I suspect we'd

00:04:04.980 still find many applicants. Do we really need to give them a budget of over $20 million a year in

00:04:09.980 order to travel the world? I don't think the world really cares who our Governor General is, and they'll

00:04:13.360 be okay if they don't see them. Do they need a veritable army of staff and attendants? We can

00:04:18.380 maintain the role respectfully while cutting it down to a shadow of what it's become. A Governor General

00:04:23.380 with a modest budget and attention might be able to remain humble rather than declaring themselves as

00:04:28.280 some form of Canadian royalty. It's a slap in the face for Canadians struggling to pay the bills to

00:04:33.260 watch a member of appointed royalty globetrotting while feeding their friends $3,000 meals on the

00:04:38.800 plane. If we want to indulge the defund movement, let's start at the top. Defund the Governor General.

Western Standard - June 17, 2022

CORY' RANT： History of waste from the governor general’s office.

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