A modest proposal

We--the taxpayers--are about to pay nearly a billion dollars for security for the G-8 and G-20 meetings next month.

Think about that for a moment.

Think what a billion dollars could do for ordinary Canadians. Let your imaginations run wild.

My suggestion? Build a permanent facility for these get-togethers--in Antarctica. There'd be capital costs to begin with, shared by the G-8 nations, and then each country would pay its own way to these interminable meetings, and back home again.

Security costs, minimal. Canadian tax bill, minor. Downtown disruption, non-existent. Getting the corporate globalization folks out of our hair--priceless.

UPDATE: (May 27) Did I say "nearly" a billion? $1.1 billion, and counting...

CC, meanwhile, uncovers an interesting wrinkle. Will the costs of G20 security be reduced further this week, and our chocolate ration increased?

It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. --1984