Unless you've been sleeping under a rock you know that hockey is the subject du jour. We saw the federal government announce an admittedly modest tax subsidy package as far as subsidy and corporate welfare packages go. But the backlash was overwhelming. As much as the CTF would like to claim victory, it is not ours to claim. Canadians from coast to coast spoke loudly and clearly on this issue and the feds quickly backed down.

If Canadian NHL teams leave Canada, as tragic as that may be, the only blame that should be laid is at the doorstep of the NHL. No one can discount the fact that player salaries have increased by 480% over the past nine years. And according to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, 20 of the leagues 26 teams lost money in 1996-97. We should also ask where the expansion fees for new teams have gone - some $500 million - over this same period. Finally the issues of salary caps and revenue sharing are still not solved and the NHL has had these problems on its plate for the past decade.

At the same time, no one should discount the problems that Canadian teams face. The lack of federal fiscal leadership to reign in government spending has resulted in a low dollar and high taxes that hurt all businesses, including NHL teams.

And in one sense we are very thankful to Ottawa Senators owner, Rod Bryden, who engaged the country in a national and all-encompassing debate. Mr. Bryden asked a very important question which still has not been answered. If we subsidize the film, magazine and aerospace industries, why not hockey On the surface it was a very legitimate question to ask.

The CTF has been fighting against all forms of corporate welfare for a decade. Simply put, the government should not be in the business of business. Too bad the government doesn't have the courage to do this!

While we are encouraged that Canadians forced the government to back down on the symbolic issue of taxpayer help for NHL teams, the question now becomes will they, will you, be as vocal on other more substantive issues

For example, in the spring of 1998 the CTF highlighted over $11 billion in corporate welfare dished out to some of Canada's largest and most successful companies from 1982. Two 140-page volumes were produced which made front-page news across the country and taxpayers said absolutely nothing.

Then in the summer of 1999, we highlighted corporate welfare largesse that included loans to some companies you may have heard of. $3.6 million to Allied Signal, $33 million to some small outfit named IBM Canada and $154 million to a company that makes jet engines, hmmm, oh yes, Pratt & Whitney. Again, no one batted an eyelash.

Finally, this past week we learned that Minister Jane Stewart and her bureaucrats at Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) have lost at least $1 billion, and perhaps as much as $3 billion, in jobs fund monies. For months the opposition parties have been hammering home at these patronage slush funds including irregularities of funding in the Prime Minister's own riding. Again, the public for the most part has been silent.

The point is clear, handing out money to political friends and every company and businessperson that comes knocking is an endemic and sad fact of Canadian politics. When it came to pro-hockey, the public said enough! But if this anger is not sustained and directed at HRDC and the billions of other wasted dollars for the magazine industry, the culture vultures and thousands of taxpayer funded interest groups, we can only blame ourselves.

The question now becomes; can taxpayers sustain this outrage into Budget 2000 and beyond The answer is up to you -