Silly Little Country

Thank God for Elizabeth May!

Evan Solomon's rather feeble CBC replacement show, replacing Don Newman's, has reached a new low; the totally dumb Elizabeth May now has a microphone to document her terrible concern that our Olympic athlete candidates are wracked with anxiety over their continuing subsidies from the Canadian taxpayers.
Why should my taxes pay to support aspiring athletes?  This simply seems absurd to me.  We have an idiotic program called 'Own the Podium' - apparently the government's goal is for Canada to score magnificently at the Olympics.  This for a country of 30 million against countries with a lot more people, and also some, like Norway and Austria, with a lot fewer people, but a lot more fundamental and historical excellence than Canada has ever managed.  What is the point?
Personally, the libertarian in me would like to have all athletic subsidies cancelled.  What is the point?  A gold medal is useless to me unless I win it, and if I want it, I can decide to train for it.  There are real rewards, and lots of people with crazy dreams and a poorly developed sense of reality will train to win gold medals.  But why should I pay?
I think we need to change 'Own the Podium' to 'Let the Podium Go to Those Who Care Enough to Spend Their Own Money and Time and not Take away any of Mine'.  That is of course too simple for the CBC or likely for our government.  Though I secretly suspect that if Harper is still the PM in 40 years he may have choked this godawful chicken to death too.  Please.  Please.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 5:11 PM