The Governor General has made some comments that were less than warmly received by separatists. I have not been able to find a reference article in English, but Radio-Canada.ca covers some of the reactions.
One of the opening comments to the article is that "[She] costs us a fortune."
RDI last night presented an article on the same subject and followed it with a single background-info slide, showing how the GG's budget almost doubled from 1995 to 2005.
This is a recurring complaint, smacks both of ignorance and of desperation to impress Joe Canadian with big numbers, and I feel a little context should be provided.
The GG represents Canada as head of state to the world, maintaining diplomatic and cultural relationships with other heads of state. She just recently welcomed the President of Latvia and will be receiving the king and queen of Sweden next month.
As she represents us to the world, she also represents, in a way, our world image to us. I very much respect the comments she makes and her desire to break the barriers between the "two solitudes." She's fighting self-obsession at the provincial level (she's not only picking on one province) so as to unlock the potential this country has to offer the world.
As for her "expenses": Rideau Hall is managed and maintained (rather shoddily I might add) by Public Works (as they do with all the official government residences), and Foreign Affairs dictates her agenda and organizes her trips. Personally I think its very convenient for this country to have two people to play the very different roles of good cop/bad cop when it comes to international diplomacy, and I see no reason why anybody should reproach her for doing the same with domestic diplomacy.
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