"Security" is more sexy than safety.

The 1.75 million dollars increase to the PMO operating budget was defended by

a spokesperson for the Prime Minister [who] said he believed the costs were essential.

There is more pressure in a 24-hour news cycle for ministers, MPs and the government to respond, said Andrew MacDougall, [...] “We’ve made the conscious effort to really step up our efforts and frankly, in contrast with past communications shops, to be out there more and be more helpful,” he said.

When I heard about this in the wee hours of the morning on Radio-Canada, I had a vision of a cellar room in the Langevin Building, filled with flunkies graduates from the Laurentian Leadership Centre spinning away furiously on stationary bikes, with Stevie Grudgiepants shouting at them: "Pedal faster! Our story has to top the next news cycle."


It turns out that no matter what one imagines the next outrageous Con fabrication to be, the actual news manipulation will surpass all expectations.


The airport "security crisis", precipitated by an amateur YouTube purportedly showing two veiled women passing through an Air Canada boarding gate without being forced to show their faces, is now the top story.


Though not the allegation Transport Canada is short-staffed by 98 aviation safety inspectors, which could explain why the ministry shifted the focus by claiming Aéropro disregarded maintenance regulations.


You can bet if a plane full of passengers crashes in Alberta that Harper's PMO will spin the story to blame the Opposition. Or unions. Or veiled muslim women.

Puff spending for PMO and life-endangering cuts to Transport.

À propos of corporate greed in the US, we asked if this was the type of economics Harper believed in.

From the Canadian Press, we learn more about Stevie Spiteful's choices, as to where to spend taxpayers' money.

The cost of running the Prime Minister’s Office will jump by more than $1-million this year, mostly because of communications expenses. [...] The Canadian Press has learned it will hit about $9.89-million, compared to last year’s $8.15-million on spending.

The PMO has hired another 20 people in the last year, including more staff to handle regional and ethnic media, as well as direct government communication, such as the ad blitz on the economic action plan.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister John Baird says he's "deeply disturbed" because airlines may not be following regulations that require boarding agents to check all passengers' faces against their passport photo.

Yet industry concerns about the staffing crisis at Transport Canada - a reported shortage of 98 inspectors - dont appear on Baird's radar. A statement about the dwindling numbers of aviation safety inspectors was made by Yvan-Miville Des Chênes, broadcast in a Radio-Canada interview. Yesterday, as a result of ongoing investigations into recent crashes of Aéropro-operated passenger flights, Transport Canada closed down its operations.

Think about it. Not enough inspectors to ensure that planes are safe to fly. Yet Baird chooses to focus on veiled women because this "poses a serious threat to the security of the air travelling public”.

Perhaps a "fiscal conservative" is someone who hasn't yet enjoyed the skyfall benefits of Stevie Spiteful & his cadre of thugs and trough-feeders' slashing of government inspectors positions.

The Cons are doing exactly what balbulican describes here, in the comments after Dawg' post: "The Harper strain of conservatism believe that governments should not govern. An interim, transitional strategy is to govern really badly."