$75 Million

                                                 http://welcometoladyville.com/

That's what the Harper government paid for advertising last year. That figure is up from $69 million in the previous year. They've cut funding for health care and veterans offices; but they've increased funding for self promotion. Jeffrey Simpson writes:

The explanation given for this spending is shameless, the kind of explanation that gives politicians a bad name everywhere as systematic liars. We need to spend the money, the government says, in order to explain how taxpayers’ money is being spent. Yet anyone who has watched the Harper government’s advertisements knows they are there for promotion, not information.

They use government websites, too. Check out the Fisheries and Oceans one, for example. There, you will find advertisements for the government’s recent announcement of millions of spending for harbours and ports across the country.

And, remember, we're paying for those ads. But that isn't enough for self congratulation. The party has gone to its base, asking for funds to fight the liberal hordes:

Recently, the Conservative Party sent an urgent letter to its supporters asking for money. After the budget, it said, the party needs money to promote the document’s low-tax, pro-growth policies in the face of what the letter described as the “Liberal” media that always deforms Conservative accomplishments.

The letter conceded briefly that there were a few pro-Conservative voices in the media, but insisted the bulk of the media is systematically hostile. This media-baiting is typical of all Conservative cash appeals: The party is surrounded on all sides by enemies, elites and hostile media voices. Only if supporters give generously can the party’s message be communicated.

Which is ridiculous, of course, since the Liberal media argument flies in the face of AM talk radio, the Sun Media chain (whose leader, Paul Godfrey, is a strident pro-Conservative voice), the National Post, plenty of private television and many other columnists and editorialists across the country. But “them against us” is a proven money-earner for the Conservatives, so they will stick with it.

They cower in closets and expect Armageddon -- for themselves and for the world. Just the sort of people, they say, who should be running the government.