The Queen’s Spendthrift
How is it that a two-bit personality from the CBC can become not only the Queen's representative, but also the Queen's spendthrift?
Only in Canada, you say? Pity.
In yet another installment of the Governor General's world tour, Adrienne Clarkson will be promoting wine, the arts, and Canadian creativity to our northern neighbours in Russia, Finland, and Iceland, engaging in a "vigorous exchange of ideas and culture, affirming and strengthening our shared northern identity," which I can only assume is political speak for "pass the Borsht and pour some more Stolichnaya, it's on me."
Now it's nothing new for Governors General to go zipping off to the four corners of the world on the tax payers' tab, shaking hands and smiling smiles, leading the good life normally reserved for heads of state and generations of high-living diplomats. But while Jeanne Sauvé and Ramon Hnatyshyn racked up enough frequent flyer points to go to the moon and back with some leftover for a trip to Patagonia, they at least kept their travel companions down to a few guests and some lucky RCMP security.
They didn't bring along the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to provide entertainment during evening cocktails, and neither did Adrienne, though she might as well have, because aside from you and me, they're the only people not going.
Tagging along with Madame Clarkson and John Ralston Saul, that bright, well-to-do man about Rideau Hall who spends much of his time fussing over the contents of the Governor General's wine cellar, will be, aside from enough security and support staff to fight a small war (yes, this is why we can't offer you any more support, Mr. Bush), 59 "Exceptional" Canadians, including the likes of Bob Rae, the CBC's Mark Starowicz, and writer Michael Ondaatje.
These people need a free vacation about as much as Paul Martin needs a campaign manager.
However, our Governor General has never been one to worry about spending other people's money on art, culture, and all things satisfying and decadent. With a résumé that includes thirty years at the CBC and five as the Agent-General to France, you could say our Governor General has become quite accustomed to sucking on the public teat. And while in days gone past this actually lead to something the public could at least enjoy (assuming anyone did enjoy Adrienne Clarkson Presents), one has to wonder the value of strutting about wearing the latest fashions in such far flung locals as Germany, Argentina and Chile, or delivering footballs to our troops overseas at the taxpayers' expense (one suspects they'd prefer better equipment and helicopters that didn't fall out of the sky faster than an Aeroflot commuter flight).
Many will argue that in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world it behooves us to reach out and share all that Canada has to offer (well, except maybe Pierre Burton), but as Walter Robinson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation quite rightly points out, we already have fully staffed embassies and consulates doing just that. The Governor General does not need to be spending her time, and taxpayer money, duplicating such work.
But that begs the larger question about what exactly she should be doing, if anything. Should she be acting as tour guide and chaperone to the likes of Yann Martel, Jane Urquhart and Denys Arcand, pointing out the caviar and canapés, playing emcee to the cavalcade of musicians and talent collected for this little junket? Do the ribbon cuttings, medal presentations and other ceremonial duties warrant the palatial abode and expense account that she and her husband so obviously enjoy?
As long as the Queen plays a role in the governmental lives of Canadians, if only ceremonially, Madame Clarkson need not worry about having to call the moving vans anytime soon. But if she feels the need to promote writing, music, painting, and other fine arts, I humbly suggest that Her Excellency focus her attention not so much on the person who wrote The English Patient, but on the people who might write the next one, and perhaps with her own money, because there are quite a number of "Canadian patients" in under-funded hospitals who, along with other pressing issues, require our more immediate concern and tax dollars.
