Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacks
I was surprised that Harper would say that, then I read the article and see that he didn't say that. Please show me the quote where Harper says he "started the campaign now in order to save taxpayer's money".
|
What can I say, you got me there. Nowhere does he say what you have in quotations (notice, however, I didn't use quotation marks when I wrote my post).
What he did say is this:
Quote:
“As it my intention to begin campaign-related activities and it is also the case for the other party leaders, it’s important that these campaigns be funded by the parties themselves, rather than taxpayers,” the Conservative leader said.
Harper told reporters that with a fixed election date in place, his rivals were already campaigning. He suggested it would not be right of him, as prime minister, to use government resources to compete.
“I feel very strongly that if we’re going to begin our campaigns, if we’re going to run our campaigns, those campaigns need to be conducted under the rules of the law, that the money come from the parties themselves not government resources, parliamentary resources or taxpayer resources,” he said.
The call, he added, was about making sure all parties are “operating within the rules and not using taxpayers’ money directly.”
|
I took this to mean (as it also appeared to mean to the person who wrote the article) that he was saying that he was saving the taxpayers money by not using government resources, meanwhile neglecting to mention that is precisely what he has been doing for a number of years and also neglecting to mention that half of every dollar spent by the parties is refunded back to the parties through rebates after the election. He also failed to mention that his government recently changed the law so that they would also be able to spend about twice as much this election and half of this new spending would have to be paid by the tax payers.
Please note that what I wrote above is my interpretation of what he said and not his exact words. That is why I didn't use quotation marks to signify that those were his words.
Edit: beaten to the punch by edslunch