Why Should I Be Forced ...

We are about half way through the Olympic Games, and already there are calls of distress that Canada is not winning many medals. And all of these calls have one thing in common: They all blame a shortage of government financial support. Apparently, according to all these pundits, Canada's athletes will be golden only if they can reach even further into my pocket and squeeze an extra dollar or two out of me.

Well, count me out!

Why should I be forced to support someone else's hobby? Why should I be forced to pay money to a trampolinist or a sabre swordsman when I'd rather spend that same money sponsoring a poet to the National Poetry Slam, or buying dinner for my honey, or getting little Johnny a new pair of shoes? I don't see anyone else paying for my hobbies, and nor would I want them to.

And just in case anyone might think this is some sort of elitist anti-sports thing, let me hasten to say that I object just as strongly to my tax dollars being forwarded to arts organizations via the Canada Council, to tax-supports for Canadian movies, to government aid for anything like this. This entire "welfare-subsidy" mentality is nothing but liberal nonsense and needs to stop!

I frankly don't see why a sport should not be self-supporting. If it is popular enough to survive, it will. However, given that for some reason it is necessary for others to aid in that support, why not set up lotteries where the proceeds are directed to specific activities. There could be an archery lottery, a 100m sprint lottery, a synchro swimming lottery, and so on. This would allow anyone who wants to support a particular program -- or who just wants a lottery to play -- the opportunity to do so.

Of course, the lottery idea will never fly with the sports organizations. And why? Because they know that very few of these sports -- or arts activities -- could market themselves well enough to make the lotteries worthwhile; that voluntary funding would not be enough. They do not have popular support, and the only way they can get funding is through a coercive taxation system that forces people to do what they don't want to do, to give money to causes they do not support.

Let the legacy of the Athens Games for Canada be that we get our money back, and also our right to choose where to spend it!