The NDP: Last, Best Defenders of Patronage

 NDP objects to patronage cuts

If any one portion of the federal budget could be considered implicitly safe for the government to cut, it should be patronage.

Unless, of course, one takes into account the NDP.

It turns out that the NDP is rather offended by some planned discontinuation of some 245 Governor-in-Council appointments across 200 government agencies.

"We expect a real assault on the public service," predicted NDP MP Pat Martin. "We're braced and we're ready for it and we're going to push back if [Stockwell Day] does intend to declare war on the public service. He's in for the fight of his life."

"There's really very little fat to be trimmed unless you want to look at whole government programs," Martin insisted. "This is what has us nervous."

The savings from the axed patronage positions are far from astronomical: in fact, they amount to a mere $1.24 million.

"This goes along with our overall approach to what we're doing in government to maximize our efficiencies," Day asserted. "Service to the public will not be affected."

These are very small cuts.

It's simply astounding that such a small cut -- to some of the most blatantly political positions within the government -- in a government that employs tens of thousands of people can provoke such panic from the NDP.

Of course, this is all just part of the apocalypse that the NDP and its supporters have been predicting ever since Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day and the Conservative Party came to power in 2006.

If the elimination of a mere 245 patronage appointments truly is an apocalypse, it's certainly one that Canadians could sleep through.