Saturday, November 21, 2009

On insider trading

Cathie was the first to point out the connection between Brad Wall's decision to throw away the $800 million per year once promised by Stephen Harper in order to accomplish nothing on more friendly terms with the federal Cons and the Sask Party's subsequent fiscal meltdown.

But the reminder is particularly striking given how Wall spent the week when his government was officially called out for blowing a billion-dollar hole in the province's budget. While the province was coming to terms with his government's gross incompetence in abandoning money promised by his federal counterpart, Wall was using Saskatchewan's public funds to buy access to U.S. politicians in hopes of pushing them to invest a fraction of that amount in a carbon-capture project - and picking up utterly undeserved national attention in the process.

Now, for those who see politics as nothing more than a way to further one's personal interests, the tradeoff of giving away billions of dollars which might otherwise flow to one's province in exchange for an excuse to seek photo ops south of the border might seem like a brilliant move. But Saskatchewan citizens have to be seriously wondering how much the province has already lost in the exchange - and how long it can afford to be run by a politician who's far more interested in boosting his own profile in Washington than in what's going on back at home.

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