As a St. Albert resident, I am increasingly concerned that Mr. Michael Cooper, our elected MP, chooses to stoke additional fear amongst citizens of our community by stating that "It's one thing to say, 'We're going to spend money on certain programs,' but you also have to address how you're going to pay for it over the long term" (Sept. 30 Gazette).
Mr. Cooper’s thinking appears to be fully ensconced – and erroneously so – in orthodox economic thinking. The truth of the matter is that one of the greatest lies ever in Canadian economic history is the false idea that the federal debt belongs to all of us, and that somehow we, as individual citizens, each owe our individual part of it. This intellectually weak argument makes us all needlessly fearful of federal aid programs designed to assist working class and poor citizens during these precarious economic times.
In fact, I would challenge Mr. Cooper to explain to all of us in the riding exactly from whom we are borrowing funds for current and future economic relief programs. And I am hoping against all hope that Mr. Cooper does not respond with ‘taxpayers’ money as his answer. That would only further infuriate and compel me to write another letter explaining why that is again an intellectually weak argument without any basis in reality. I am certain that there are some accountants within the federal Conservative party that would be more than willing to sit down and educate Mr. Cooper as to the concept of a balance sheet.
Denis Lapierre, St. Albert
