Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs

Stevie's Tories have strewn Canada (or at least certain parts of it) with "Economic Action Plan 2010" signs, and are sparing no expense to ensure that each and every one of the 8,500 signs are carefully tracked... On a weekly basis, no less.

You may have seen one of these signs. They look exactly like the image to the right.

Every single week, eighteen government departments have to submit paperwork (by noon each Monday) on the sign status throughout Canada:

The signage database, at the request of the PCO, includes the total number of projects that require an “Economic Action Plan” sign, the number of signs already installed, the number of signs remaining to be installed and the number of signs ordered.

They're not tracking how many jobs their plan has created - but the signs? Oh, those they track. Why, if I weren't so sure Stevie were such an upstanding guy, I'd suspect that he probably were more interested in looking like he were doing something than actually doing it.

Wait, sorry. Did I say upstanding guy? I meant asshat. Stevie's a tremendous asshat.

Now, here's the thing. In a recession, makework programs are not an inherently bad thing - there's better things to spend the money on than a PR campaign (infrastructure is a no-brainer, and these days investing in green technology would be a pretty good idea), but figuring out ways to get money into the citizens' wallets in order to boost confidence and help people ride out the economic downturn is the general idea. However, you still want to make sure the money's being well-spent... And one would imagine, given how much Stevie's PMO crows about "fiscal responsibility," this would go double for the Tories.

We have no idea how much the 3000 pages of documentation the tracking program has cost taxpayers, because the Tories are staying quiet on that note. We do have an idea how much the signs themselves cost:

For the smallest one-foot by three-foot sign, the cost was $86. Larger 2x6 signs cost $204, while 4x12 signs cost $663.

Wanna know the absolute kicker? The part that makes this all so incredibly shameful? The signs aren't even made in Canada. The $86 (plus delivery and installation) goes to a company based out of Tacoma, Washington. Stevie's spending all this money to line an American company's pockets. Which, I shouldn't have to tell you, completely defeats the purpose of a recession-based makework program.

I think I've finally realized something that I kind of always knew, but never really fully digested: Stevie hates Canada. I mean, really, what other explanation is there?