You’re the federal Finance Minister; the world economy is in meltdown mode; the Canadian economy is in reverse, showing no inclination to stop edging closer and closer to the precipice where recession plunges into depression; you have come to the west coast for consultation and input on the economy and you go to … West Vancouver?

The only way he could have held his consultation somewhere less in touch with the economic reality that 80 – 90% of Canadians face in their daily lives in the actual working world would have been to hold it on Jimmy Patterson’s yacht. However, that would have left no room for the press and thus press coverage.

Why is it that when politicians want to consult on or discuss the economy they never seek the advice or opinion of the people who are most affected by the economic policies of governments? Probably because they will be given advice and opinions they do not want to hear, much less have to act on it.

For instance Employment Insurance. You currently have to wait 45 days to start collecting EI. With so many working Canadians living pay cheque to pay cheque as a result of the government policies that continue to swell the ranks of the working poor how are you expected to survive 45 days?

With the economy in free fall and shedding jobs by the tens of thousands how are the unemployed to find employment before their EI benefits run out? Add in those trapped on Welfare because there are no jobs for them in this economy plus the fact that welfare payments are not sufficient to pay rent or live on and the country is facing the possibility of a tidal wave of homeless.

That is not what the government wants to hear or to have to act on. No our governments abhor having to spend money on the welfare of the poor, those who have or will lose their jobs and the working poor; preferring to spend nothing to insure the welfare of these citizens. No welfare spending should be reserved for corporations and the wealthy.

The federal government has for years been abandoning its duty of care to address the welfare of the ordinary citizen; but let big corporations like the automobile industry need welfare and the feds happily rush to hand over billions – on top of the billions of dollars of corporate welfare paid to the car companies over prior decades.

We have already started to hear the hue and cry for tax cuts to stimulate the economy, a course of action that has been a favourite of governments over the years. Yes we will cut taxes to make the rich richer; but put money into the hands of the poor or ordinary income earner – can’t do that – even if these are the groups that will spend the money and stimulate the economy.

Listening and watching Mr. Harper and his finance minister Mr. Flaherty it is looking more and more as though the fact Canadian voters denied the Conservatives a majority and Mr. Harper having been forced to prorogue parliament is a massive stroke of luck for ordinary Canadians.

Not only is Mr. Harper required to work with the other parties, but the events leading up to the Governor General proroguing parliament rudely and extremely effectively reminded Mr. Harper of the need to consult and work with the other parties in parliament.

One of the things that Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Harper don’t want to hear but need to actually pay attention to in deciding on policy is that the economic disaster we find ourselves teetering on is a result of the actions and policies of governments over past 2 – 3 decades.

Continuing to operate in the same way is only going to continue to give rise to more of the same economic problems; in other words if government keeps on doing what it has been doing we are going to continue to get what we have been getting.

Personally I have no desire to keep on getting the economic outcomes that we are facing currently, do you?

It is time to tell Mr. Harper we have had enough of the insanity of doing the same thing over and over, basing policy on the same operating philosophies, hoping that one of these times the outcome will be different.

No more corporate welfare; no more welfare for the rich; it is time that government paid attention to the welfare of ordinary Canadians.