RE: Claire Hoy Misses Point” (July 1 edition)

Claire Hoy, in his July 1 column, basically ignores the real issue bothering many Canadians about the G8 and G20 meetings.

Hoy, in one line, dismisses the billion dollar cost of these meetings. I, for one, cannot understand why Canada paid $800 million dollars “more” to host the meetings than the countries that hosted the 2009 and 2008 meetings.

Many people understand that if Canada belongs to a group of countries that met on a regular basis then naturally we have to take our turn. Whether the meetings are productive or not, depends on many factors and some meetings will be more productive than others.

What the Canadian government must answer for is the mismanagement of these meetings in terms of location and cost. Clearly, the choice of location (isolation for Huntsville an complexity of Toronto location) indicates irresponsibility and a clear lack of concern for the Canadian taxpayer.

Hoy indicates that a billion dollars is not that much and that the size of the expenditure may be because of the actions of those who complain about the cost. Well, I, and many of my friends, were not involved in any demonstrations and we are sure complaining.

The administration of these meetings and arrogance with respect to the spending of tax dollars, clearly indicates not respect for our tax dollars nor for Canadians. Many millions of dollars were spent on short notice and likely went to firms and friends of the government. If spent any other way there would be questions about who got how much and for what. Many projects were completely unrelated to the meetings and in locations some distance from the meetings.

Canadians, in my opinion, are entitled to reasonable leadership and administration of our country.

This government has demonstrated a complete failure in terms of leadership and fiscal responsibility in their handling of the G8 and G20 meetings and do not deserve our support.

There will be other choices at the next election and we must make sure they get a chance. The first term for a new government is usually the best, as newly elected members question administration practices.

Canadians should not dwell on who the leaders might or might not be. Canada has not done that well with the five or six leaders, so let’s elect a new government and give them a chance to use our tax dollars more efficiently that this government has.

Robert W. Anderson

Shelburne