Spare a coupla billion, pal?

What a shaming, depressing life it must be to be a premier. Your whole job is to beg: and not just on any street corner, where the possibility of running into someone you know is fairly remote, but loudly, angrily, on national TV. I imagine it's only because they're so good at it that they can keep it up. Of course, the premiers are hardly alone. Across large sections of Canadian society, the corporate sector in particular, leaders are schooled and selected for one talent in particular: their ability to demand, without evident sense of shame, a wad of other people's money.