CORY' RANT： History of waste from the governor general’s office.
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Summary
When are we going to put our foot down and defund the outdated and almost insulting institution of the Governor General in Canada?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.
Transcript
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it's time to defund the Governor General. How long do we have to keep spending millions to
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enable a series of pompous appointed ribbon cutters to shamelessly waste our tax dollars
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on frivolous luxuries? When are we going to put our foot down and defund the outdated and almost
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insulting institution of the Governor General in Canada? Governor General Julie Payette, for
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example, resigned in disgrace just a little over a year ago after a tumultuous three and a half
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years as Governor General. Her term was marked by entitlement, extravagant waste, staff abuse,
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and I would say even laziness. Payette caused issues early in her role when she whined about having to
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move her schedule in June of 2018 in order to sign a bill into law. Signing bills into law is literally
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her most important role, but she didn't like troubling herself with it. Payette liked the
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attention she garnered as Governor General, but chafed under the actual tasks and obligations,
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and she was engaged in constant battles with the government as she tried to reduce her workload in
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that first year. Payette did dive into design and renovations as a hobby, though, as her small palace
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at Rideau Hall was, uh, she pissed away 140,000 tax dollars to study having a new staircase built.
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And why did she need this new private staircase? Well, because she wanted to be able to navigate
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through that hall without actually coming into contact with any of the unwashed who sometimes
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pass through the building on tours and visitors. Yeah. The final straw came when Payette, uh, was a,
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when it was exposed, how she'd been chronically abusive with her staff, and that working on her
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entourage was proving to be one of the most toxic jobs to be had in Ottawa. She was, uh, just a nasty,
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nasty person. The history of taxpayer waste by Governor General's, though, is long and storied.
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Think of a former CBC personality, Adrienne Clarkson. She was notorious with her high spending in
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the role. On one single tour to Arctic nations, Clarkson blew 5 million tax dollars. Not a huge
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dent in her nearly $20 million annual budget at the time, though. Clarkson billed, and still bills,
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$100,000 a year for office expenses. Yeah, still now. And, uh, she's soaked taxpayers for office
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expenses for over a million dollars since she retired. This is on top of the massive pension she
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gets, of course. You see, a lot of people don't know this, but every Governor General gets an expense
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account on the taxpayers for the rest of their life. And it's not that they should need it. They're
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paid nearly $300,000 a year. And while they're in office, they have every expense, from housing to
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clothing to travel, all paid for by the taxpayers. Their salary pretty much just goes right into the
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bank. Now, Justin Trudeau appointed Mary Simon to the role of Governor General almost a year ago, and it
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appears she's embraced the role of largesse, waste, and entitlement quickly. On a trip to the Middle East last
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March, Simon and her entourage managed to rack up a $93,000 bill, $93,000, just for catering on the
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military jet she used for the trip. While I can understand the Governor General needn't suffer
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through a long flight with little more than a tiny bag of roasted peanuts to sustain herself,
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as the commoners do, I would think she could have fed her entourage at less than $3,000 a head.
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Now, technically, the Governor General is Canada's head of state, the most powerful person in the
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country. No legislation can actually pass without the approval of the Queen's representative. In
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reality, though, the roles evolved into nothing beyond a ceremonial one. If a Governor General
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actually refused to sign a bill into law, it would be the day we'd start working towards becoming a
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republic rather than a constitutional monarchy. Perhaps that wouldn't be a bad move, but it's not
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going to happen anytime soon. We currently have a woke federal government that panders to extreme
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activists who refer to Canadians as settlers and demand decolonization, whatever that means.
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Ironically, though, the greatest symbol we have of colonialism and settlement is the office of the
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Governor General. It indicates we're still beholden and subservient to a foreign power.
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It would take a complete constitutional revamping to get rid of the office of the Governor General,
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and I don't see that happening. We can cut the budget to the bone, though. Would it be impossible
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to find a person to sit in the role of handshakes and ceremonies for a salary of $200,000? I suspect we'd
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still find many applicants. Do we really need to give them a budget of over $20 million a year in
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order to travel the world? I don't think the world really cares who our Governor General is, and they'll
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be okay if they don't see them. Do they need a veritable army of staff and attendants? We can
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maintain the role respectfully while cutting it down to a shadow of what it's become. A Governor General
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with a modest budget and attention might be able to remain humble rather than declaring themselves as
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some form of Canadian royalty. It's a slap in the face for Canadians struggling to pay the bills to
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watch a member of appointed royalty globetrotting while feeding their friends $3,000 meals on the
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plane. If we want to indulge the defund movement, let's start at the top. Defund the Governor General.