2008 Federal Election

Cost of the 2008 Federal Election

By Sam Mooney ⋅ October 13, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

It will be a while before we know the exact cost of the election but estimates are $300 to $400 million.  Plus $3.5 million for the cancelled by-elections. 

That’s a lot of money.  Not as much as the war in Afghanistan is costing, but a lot.  We could have educated doctors, I’d like to have a doctor.  We could pay for textbooks in schools, we could provide a lot of daycare.

It seemed to me that the only people who wanted an election were Mr Harper and the Conservatives.  At the beginning they seemed pretty sure that they were going to win a majority government -  although Harper did say another Conservative minority was possible. 

He is now predicting  "the next government will probably be a minority, Liberal or Conservative."  He also said "If I don’t win this election, I’m sure my party will look for another leader," .

Doesn’t it seem to you that if a minority government calls an election and the results are the same minority government, that’s a loss? 

Even if it isn’t technically a loss it’s a gigantic waste of time and money.  So here’s my idea…

If the result of the election is a Conservative minority all the Conservatives elected should personally pay us back the +/- $400 million that the election cost.

Why not?  It’s as if we paid for a facelift we didn’t want and no one can tell the difference.