William and Kate are a serious bargain for Canada

By MEL ROTHENBURGER/ The Armchair Mayor

Some people in this country can’t stand seeing others have fun.

If somebody else has a good time, or makes more money than they do, they resent it. They get it in their heads there’s something wrong with that, that everybody else should be brought down to their level.

It’s particularly true with public figures. They think Stephen Harper, who pulls in around $318,000 a year plus free rent on a couple of pretty nice houses, is over-paid.

OK, bad example, but he does put in some pretty long days.

These grumpy people always compare public feel-good spending of any kind with basic services. “That money could have bought a lot of healthcare or social services,” they say.

They claimed the Olympics were a waste of money because they involved having fun, but what a party it was.

Now they’re going on about the Royal Tour and how much it’s costing. We should be spending it on social programs, they say.

For crying out loud, the essentials of life go beyond food and shelter and breathable air. Without a bit of cake once in awhile, the vegetables get pretty tasteless.

How dreary must be the lives of the anti-Monarchists who begrudge the fact that these seemingly unnecessary people have privileged lives and cost us a bit of money.

Could they not suspend their up-tightness occasionally to revel in the absurd pageantry of it all in an age when there is so much to worry about?

What fun it is to watch Prince William and Kate be entertained right here in Canada so soon after that spectacular wedding we all stayed up in the middle of the night to watch (well, I didn’t stay awake to watch it, but I caught the recap the next morning).

Yes, the “Moving Forward Together Tour” (some politician must have thought up that name) is costing us somewhere around $1.2 million plus RCMP overtime and other security costs, but that’s a pittance compared to other Royal Tours.

These things can’t be done cheaply. The bill for a reception in Calgary is $150,000, there’s photography at $75,000, and $775 for flowers for Kate. It all adds up.

Should they pay their own costs? Well, when you invite friends to your house for dinner, do you bill them for it?

Besides, Wills isn’t exactly rolling in cash. He only pulls in the equivalent of about $55,000 a year from his work with the military, plus some income from his inheritance from his mother Diana.

He and Kate can’t even afford a butler at their new cottage. Talk about cutting corners.

The Queen is a different story. She takes home about $52 million a year, about the same as Miley Cyrus.

Mind you, if we paid Miley Cyrus to come to Canada I’d be first in line to complain.

Overall, the Royals are a pretty good deal for us. We in Canada don’t pay for their day-to-day upkeep, only for their stand-ins here at home. For the same price the Brits pay for the Queen alone, we get the Governor-General and a bunch of Lt.-Governors.

The Royals are much more than a reminder of our nation’s history, much more than fancy clothes and carriages and prancing horses. They’re an excuse to forget about the hum-drum.

We all had a great time with the Olympics, which cost us $800 million. Prince William and Kate are a serious bargain.