Harper lies and broken promises - the series, Part I

In February 2006, Steve bragged about his smaller cabinet, in keeping with his promise to reduce the size of government.

Harper boasted in a news release that his new smaller cabinet is "designed for work, not for show."

"The structure is designed to promote accountable, efficient and effective government -- more focus and purpose; less process and cost."

Steve promises to reduce the size of government yet during at time where Stevo wants to emphasize the need for deep cuts in order to justify cutting what he wanted to cut all along, he increases the size of his cabinet.

Mr. Harper appointed 37 ministers and junior ministers this week, five more than in his previous government.

Well sure, because in hard economic times where Harper has already indicated he won’t be able to follow through on his election promises, we really, really need this guy.

And the cost to Canadians (who need to tighten their belts, of course) -

Salaries alone for the additional ministers will total more than $500,000. In addition, each minister must be supported by a small bureaucracy.

What value for our dollar (as the CONs are fond of saying) will these new posts give us?

By having a corpulent cabinet, Harper increases his government's profile in more places in the country, which of course is helpful politically.

Because there's no price tag too high to be paid by Canadians when it comes to promoting Harper politically.