All smiles: Scott Hennig of the Canadian “Taxpayers” Association, right, with uber-right-wing Alberta politician Freddy Lee “Ted” Morton, even farther to the right, grabbed from the CTF website. The CTF is not affiliated with any political party … really!Scott Hennig, Alberta director of the so-called Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says Alberta’s public employees should have their wages slashed by 5 per cent.
But Mr. Hennig, the ubiquitous free-market fundamentalist, also thinks it was just fine for Edmonton’s City Council to vote themselves a pay increase of close to 5 per cent.
What’s with this?
Well, it’s hard to say, actually, what the youthful Mr. Hennig was trying to prove with his defence of elected public employees’ pay raises, since his arguments don’t make much sense even from the perspective of the highly ideological pro-business claptrap normally spouted by the CTF. Who knows? Maybe it was just a momentary lapse.
Plenty of Edmonton taxpayers may have been in a knee-jerk fury at reports last week that council voted itself a 4.64-per-cent raise, but Mr. Hennig argued in the Edmonton Sun that since the justification for the raise was based on Statistics Canada cost of living and weekly wage calculations, that made it OK. He described the process as “open and transparent.”
Never mind that all the public service unions he regularly slams use the same “open and transparent” process to argue for increases to their members’ much more modest salaries. Presumably, from the CTF perspective, that’s somehow different.
Mr. Hennig also made the claim that it would cost taxpayers less if politicians take a significant raise now and give themselves another big one later than if they just vote themselves a single huge pay raise at some future date. He provided no explanation of the logic behind this conclusion, and apparently the Edmonton Sun reporter who recorded it didn’t think to ask.
But then, why would he? After all, Mr. Hennig is quoted with such metronomic regularity by the Alberta media that his many pronouncements have come to possess the quality of expert testimony, or even engraved tablets toted down from the summit of Mount Sinai. He would undoubtedly be in the Rolodex of every working journalist in Alberta if working journalists still used Rolodexes.
However, Mr. Hennig’s attack on public employees, one of numerous suggestions in a slick CTF publication called “Roadmap to a Balanced Budget” churned out by the group to generate media publicity in advance of the 2011 Alberta budget, is standard fare for the organization.
So let’s ask ourselves just who or what the CTF represents. Here’s a hint: not taxpayers.
Now, the CTF describes itself as “a not-for-profit citizens’ group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government,” and claims to have “over 70,000 supporters nationwide.”
The group has a grandly titled factotum in each region of the country who seems to spend a lot of time hanging out at events where media congregate, giving gravely concerned interviews to respectful reporters. An opening of Alberta’s Legislature or a Budget Speech rarely passes without being graced by the lean and well-spoken Mr. Hennig.
In addition to its five “regional directors,” the CTF employs a president and CEO, a vice-president of operations, a director of online campaigns, a financial manager, a webmaster-publisher and a national research director.
So how does this “citizens’ advocacy group” pay for a nationwide staff with unlimited time to lollygag around government buildings, produce fancy publications and regular “action updates,” plus manage its slick labour intensive web and social media presence?
Well, that’s not entirely clear, seeing as its “supporters” (not members, note) are “welcome to join at no cost,” and indeed it is remarkably easy to do so using the CTF’s efficient on-line form.
Now, no doubt, some naïve taxpayers make donations to the CTF in the belief it is working for them against the interests of, to quote the well-heeled group’s website, “big unions, big corporations and government-funded special interest groups.”
However, since virtually all of the CTF’s positions are boilerplate reflections of the corporate low-tax, anti-worker, high-privatization, anti-democratic agenda, the organization carries with it a strong whiff of the chemical odour of AstroTurf.
“AstroTurfing,” colloquially speaking, is the establishment of groups that really represent commercial or political special interests while pretending to represent “grassroots” citizens. This activity is named for the brand of synthetic carpeting that is designed to look, from a distance, like real grass.
As a result, notwithstanding the interests of real taxpayers, the CTF is a particular and dedicated foe of all public services, defined-benefit pension plans, fair election financing laws, the long-form census questionnaire, measures to reduce the effects of climate change and even the life-saving Canadian Firearms Registry. On the other hand, it is strangely silent about such spectacularly expensive taxpayer-supported boondoggles as the F-35 fighter jet or multi-billion-dollar federal prison-building schemes.
While the CTF claims not to be affiliated with any political party, it has also served as a talent agency for the Harper government in Ottawa, the Harris government in Ontario and sundry Conservative Party offshoots elsewhere. For example, Jason Kenney, Canada’s immigration minister and censor in chief, used the CTF as his springboard to politics. Mr. Hennig himself worked as a speechwriter for the Alberta Conservative caucus and it seems quite likely based on his activities that he has political ambitions of his own.
What the CTF emphatically does not do, it is worth repeating, is represent the interests of the ordinary taxpayers it purports to speak for, who benefit from fair public services, decent pensions, elections that can’t be bought by wealthy corporations and even “red tape” – a term that, after all, is just market fundamentalist vilification of fair regulations that protect consumers and citizens.
Naturally, unlike one of those “big unions,” there is no mechanism by which the CTF’s “supporters” can control, or even influence, the selection of the group’s leaders and spokespeople, or influence its policy positions.
Indeed, for a group that claims tirelessly to stand for transparency and openness, facts about the CTF’s own “donation-based” funding sources are remarkably difficult to come by.
It would be very interesting to see the CTF’s complete donor list so that Canadians could know who really funds this organization … and why.
This post also appears on rabble.ca.
Two possibilities for why Hennig has no problem with Edmonton city council voting themselves a raise, but is concerned about provincial employee salaries.
1. Scott Hennig is not a resident of Edmonton, and therefore Edmonton council salaries increasing will not come out of his pocket.
2. His father Stew is a city Councillor in Fort Saskatchewan. It would be kind of hard for Hennig to argue against wage increases, or for lower wages for one set of Councillors when his father is collecting a paycheque on another council.
Thanks for the kind words David. You just as easily could have called me "pencil neck" instead of "lean."
As for the politicians pay hike, it's the same argument we've used in the past with judges: http://taxpayer.com/calgary-sun/give-judges-raise
If you are looking for more proof of our party ties, look no further than our facebook page photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=181832&l=e344be3697&id=6095483909
The last four have me smiling next to Brian Mason, Ted Morton, Danielle Smith and Hugh MacDonald. Undeniable proof that we're affiliated with not just one but four politial parties!
If you have a list of large corporate donors that have massive cheques waiting for us to pick them up, please let me know, we would take them in a second.
It's not that we don't accept them, it's that we can't get large corporations or large donors to step forward and give us money.
I think it might have something to do with us crapping on the corporate welfare too many of them accept.
Lastly on our supporters, our privacy policy clearly lays out that we won't disclose their information. We don't want to open them up to attacks from governments we've pissed off, spam and junk mail or poaching by politicians and political parties.
Again, thanks for the kind words.
Scott
David, a bit rough on the kid.
As for CTF support, as one once involved with that group, it works like this: every time they sell a membership to a household — a SINGLE membership per household — they count FOUR "supporters".
If CTF today claims 70,000 supporters nation-wide, it is fair to say they likely have about 16,000 paid members, the bulk of whom are to be found in AB, SK, and MB, with a smattering in ON and BC.
That said, their worldview certainly represents a good 30% of Western Canadians.
And yes, the CTF does tread very lightly on some elected politicians, unfortunately.
Hennig's views are laughable but his agenda isn't. It's obvious that the guy is ambitious regards his own career, but the real dangers of a guy like that (and plenty of others) is that he works hard to sell the idea that taxes are bad.
If no person or organization paid any taxes then where would we be? How would we go about organizing our society? Would businesses just take care of everything that people demanded?
It is unbelievable to think that this could ever be a reality. Every society on the earth has government involvement in organizing how the economy is run (i.e. what tax structure to use, what infrastructure to invest in, what programs and services to deliver, etc.).
If governments play less of a role in making these decisions, then who feels the void? Is it the 'free market'?? What does this even mean?? Does it mean that privately owned businesses will make these decision in place of government?
Let's assume this last question is correct and even desirable, as this is what Hennig might consider to be the 'free market'. (Hennig: if you mean something else, please enlighten me!)
If private companies assume the role of government then we're really talking about the owners of those companies making these decisions instead of the government. Well, as compromised as one might assume the government is in terms of representing the public's interest, do you think the owners of private companies are going to do this in a more efficient or fairer way?
As if the government and our political system isn't compromised enough already by the influence of money (the indirect buying of our electoral process through conglomerated media, the funding of politicians campaigns, etc.), people like Hennig want the government out of the equation altogether (less publicly owned and controlled entities, more privitization, less taxes, etc.)!!!
Hennig's whole ideology, and others who promote 'free markets' doesn't hold any water. Reasons why any significant segment of the public agree with it is that it is just repeated over and over again. 'Blame the government! They're taking our hard earned money and wasting it!!' goes the line.
Really? Is that it?? Come on Hennig, you have to do better than that. Anyone who really cares about how our taxes are being spent cares more about how the public can influence our representatives in government to spend our money on things people want and how we want them (like a higher standing of living without ripping the earth apart, having more free time to spend with their friends and family, reducing the # of multi-millionaires and billionaires so everyone can have a decent life, etc.).
Really what this means is increasing genuine involvement in the political process, i.e. building a better democracy. Knowing a bit about our province, it's pretty obvious that Alberta has a long way to go to further advance this cause.
And one things for sure, it's not through less taxes and more rich people deciding for us what kind of society we want.
Pages 2 and 3 in the Toronto Sun carrying a whole bunch of CTF propaganda. Front page was taken up vilifying transit workers.
While using untold amounts of tax-provided benefits every day, people like Hennig still scream about taxes. Maybe he just hasn't been around long enough or has such a poor knowledge of history that he doesn't realize what a truly awful world it would be without the benefits they provide.
Such right-wing views in one so young. Where can he possibly go from there?
As somebody said recently, "There is no representation without taxation."
As long as we've got a stake in the running of the country, we should have a say it what happens.
Maybe that's the real agenda behind all this. We all become serfs and the people Hennig serves tell us what to do.
Personally, while I am sympathetic to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s concerns and while it is probably true that our various governments waste money on many useless endeavours, my emphasis would be on “less waste” and “accountable government” rather than necessarily “lower taxes.” I don’t mind paying taxes for legitimate social services like hospitals or educational institutions. However, what we hand over to the government should be used efficiently so that we get the best performance for our money.