The General's Last Move

Nobody has been able to answer the single most important question about Andrew Leslie's exorbitant moving expenses.  What on earth costs $72,000 to move a few blocks?

Did he need to unearth a terracotta army and bury it at the new location?  So what was it then?

I'm sure every tax paying citizen recognizes that this is just too much to stand whatever the reason.  Faced with a move that would cost Seventy Two Grand most Canadians would find another way or take the loss. Entitled Ottawa elites however just send us the receipt.

Andrew Leslie is probably an honorable enough man.  He is also angling for the job of Minister of Defense.  A Defense Minister has to oversee troop movements a heck of a lot farther away than a couple of affluent blocks in the Nation's Capitol.  Why can't he tell us what went wrong with his move?  How did it end up being so expensive?  It was nearly double the 2nd highest all time moving expense claim (and even that ones gets me angry.  $42,000!  What the hell!).

And what are we to make of a man who calls the genuine concern of a taxpayer like myself a "partisan attack".

How dare we little racing rats question a man with such a gilded resume?  He would make a fine non-liberal Liberal Senator wouldn't he?  Generals and Senators can do no wrong you know.  He's faced down a fearsome enemy with real bullets (an enemy that remains in place after 13 years) and made six healthy figures doing it.  That really is amazing.  Who said you'll never strike it rich serving in the military?  Maybe Corporal Tremblay?

Oh?  Was that an attack?  Is there a lie in it somewhere?  Because the truth is a potent weapon.  Go ahead.  Knock us down with the truth about the move.  We can handle the truth.

It's the old entitlement showing its face again.  No please or thank you.  -Just pay in 90 days or pay more.  It's tax time again, and with Tax Freedom Day far off behind I'm not really interested in the wealthy former general's poor feelings.

Its up to Leslie to help us understand.  The public supports the Military and in no small part thanks to the efforts of the Harper Government.  We have open minds.  Tell us.  There have already been suggestions of kickbacks or at best incompetence.  Silence only reinforces the idea there is something wrong.  Leslie claims that everything was legit, so what's the problem with the details then eh?

Look I support the military more than anyone I know.  I do not worship them.  I do not revere them.  So excuse me if I share the secret.  Armed forces members and veterans are still just people.  There are good ones and bad ones.  There are real heroes, traitors and even some brutally evil bastards too.  Its hard to compare them to priests and teachers or doctors and scientists, many of whom aren't paid what they are worth, but we already know the truth about all of them.  We know that while some people are strong others are weak and fallible. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of hat they wore at some point.  It's wrong to say that a person in a uniform is beyond reproach simply because of that uniform.

It's not like the press is going to do any reproaching.  Here we see the hypocrisy of the media clearly.

Remember the hoopla disseminated when a Senator repaid to taxpayers some $90,000 of a private individual's money?  The damning part of the "scandal" being that Harper allegedly commanded that the right thing be done.  In reality the person who did the right thing was terminated for doing the right thing wrong along with the people who did the wrong thing in the first place.  Go back and read the many varied opinion pieces just dripping with venom and hatred at the time.  Now a Liberal candidate is found taking a similar amount from taxpayers.  Its an old fashioned liberal style cash grab and all we get is excuses from the same Band of Butt-lickers.

No wonder Leslie didn't make the cut.  It turns out he tried to get on the Conservative slate first.  Imagine how this would have been portrayed by the media if Leslie were a Conservative?  The Media party would freak.  I'm glad the system worked.  Leslie went where he belongs.: to the party that sees public office as a lottery that pays out on election day.  The Liberals can keep him, but I want my money back.