How about a little Transparency

A Secret Society?

Ok, I admit it, I find the Canadian Taxpayers Federation pretty annoying. Don’t believe for a moment that they, as they claim, speak for Canadian taxpayers. From where I sit they seem pretty much like a right wing lobby group.

They describe themselves as a non profit organization funded by Canadians. People like you and me. Somehow, I doubt it.

So where does their money come from? They describe themselves as a non-profit organization. What credible organization has no Annual General Meeting? They do have a Board of Directors although there isn’t any sense, judging from that list, that the organization is anything but a wing on the Conservative Party’s right flank.

They have a staff of 10 to 15 people who can afford suits and have offices, or at the very least a desk, in Ottawa, Toronto, Regina, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Quebec and Halifax. Not cheap.

They are not a charity so no contribution tax credit if you donate to them.

Most groups offer a bit more transparency than the CTF. What do they have to hide I wonder. I have never, ever come across any person who admits to being a member. Pretty shady I figure.

What annoys me more than anything else is that Canadian media outlets are constantly parroting the organization’s rhetoric along with the that from the Frontier Institute for Public Policy and the Fraser Institute, taking their research as gospel truth. They take their media releases at face value and uncritically spew them back at us on the public airwaves. I know it is cheaper that paying for research or giving your reporters a little time to dig around themselves but dammit, it ain’t right. I for one would like to hear a bit more from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Enough of this secret society stuff.