Buying devotion
Never doubt it, not for a minute. The rich aren’t like you and me. They don’t think of themselves in the same way.
Locally, there’s a dream. A new arena, where famous rock bands can perform, where the circus can get out from under that musty canvas “Big Top” and really let loose. A place where the NHL team in “our” colours will win every game and bring home a succession of Stanley Cup banners. I did say this is a dream, right?
But our current arena is old, and well, old. Not enough boxes for those rich people. And so the drive is on, to raise money. Now, if this dream was viable, the private sector would have already completed the structure and the rest of us would be lined up to purchase tickets to see bands and acrobats and hockey players with the winning touch. Alas, we have a dream, based on the premise where the public purse is never empty. Federal government: $170 million or more. Provincial government: 45% of the tab, or more. The municipality: that number just keeps on growing and growing. It’s a dream, right?
And then along comes the rich young man from Montreal, and he has offered “tens of millions” to get in on this poker game. In return, the devotion of the public, and a place to pick up some taxation points.
Pardon me for looking a gift horse in the mouth, but since when did “tens of millions” get devotion rights to anything? I guess that “rich” money is worth more than “my” money, in the skewed vision of a rich man.
