As our political scenarios is concerned, we have a Prime Minister who has defended his raise in salary pay and benefit compensations(1) by saying that if he would have worked for the private sector by now he would have made more money than working for the public sector(2). And I must add, that maybe, if the Prime Minister would have worked for the private sector he could have even be in jail by now as well(3). Further, after having assured that his pockets are legally full of other people's money, the Prime Minister went on to champion our world wide democratic outlook by defending the granting of the honorary Canadian citizenship to Nelson Mandela(4) while at the same time Amnesty International castigates our Saskatoon's police force(5).

On the provincial front, the deliberate deception of our politicians continue as Calvert's government has just released a new 16 target economic development strategy which is supposed to increase our disposable income by twenty per cent within the next five years(6). Premier Calvert has been heralding the accomplishments of the NDP government by saying that since 1992 this same government has surpassed its target to increase the number of jobs by 30,000 by in fact increasing the number of jobs by 36,500(7). This is the deliberate deception of our government, they tell us the hard statistical evidence that the number of jobs increased by 36,500 while at the same time they don't tell us how this increase of jobs has materialized along with a decrease of disposable income, with a decrease of our labour force, and with 5,400 fewer people working in Saskatchewan than in the month before(8). And the calcified ignorance of our politicians can be summarized by Minister of Economic Development Eldon Lautermilch as he says "We've also set a target to address attitude(9)." In the meantime our Acting Provincial Auditor Fred Wendell is reporting the lack of governmental supervision in the handling of $34 million in public money that has flowed through the First Nations Fund(10).

I am beginning to wonder about the fine distinction between fraud and deliberate deception as perpetrated by our socially and democratically contracted governments.

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. Passage of bill 'a dark day for Parliament': taxpayers group, Joël-Denis Bellavance, June 8, 2001, National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010608/585687.html

2. National evening news broadcasted June 7, 2001

3. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's involvement with the BDC's $615,000 loan: Lack of Common Sense Democracy, by Mario deSantis, November 30, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis275/ethics.html

4. MP's snub of Mandela 'stupid,' 'appalling'. Mulroney joins attack, Robert Fife and Corinna Schuler, with files from Joël-Denis Bellavance, National Post, June 8, 2001 http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20010608/585621.html&qs=mandela

5. Allegations of police abuse put Saskatoon on Amnesty list, by Jason Warick of The StarPhoenix, May 31, 2000 http://injusticebusters.com/index.htm/Amnesty_List.htm#anchor377537

6. Ambitious economic goals set by province, CBC Saskatchewan, June 7, 2001 http://sask.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/06/07/econo010607

7. REPORT CARD ­ PARTNERSHIP FOR GROWTH, Government of Saskatchewan http://www.saskprosperity.sk.ca/PFGReportCard.PDF

8. Bad news for Saskatchewan's economy, CBC Saskatchewan, June 8, 2001 http://sask.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/06/08/jobs010608

9. STRATEGY FOR PROSPERITY, News Release, Government of Saskatchewan, Executive Council - 420, June 7, 2001 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2001/06/07-420.html

10. Report makes Nault's case, Opinions, June 8, 2001, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan