Tampon Tantrum

A recent political stunt is sparking “debate” in social media circles thanks to the desperate efforts of Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri.

With a camera person in tow, Michelle waltzed into the men’s washroom near her office in a Parliament building to illustrate a  potentially wasteful use of OUR taxes. The extravagance in question was a small basket of tampons & pads (3-4 of each) left near the sink.

Michelle shared the results of her unimpressive investigation on Twitter to score brownie points with miserly nitwits who are led to believe that this is a big issue.

Michelle was appointed as the Conservative Shadow Minister for Families, Children & Social Development in 2021. Her plate is visibly not full enough if she has the time to haunt Parliament’s public washrooms making videos about free tampons rather than doing something more constructive.

I gather it got negative PR because Ms. Ferreri removed the original video soon after posting it. But you can still watch it here thanks to the resourcefulness of Twitter users.

Its brief life has nonetheless captured the imagination of the stingy and moronic.

The comments on this post were hilarious:

This warrior-for-the-people has watched Norma Rae too many times, I think.

A thoughtful answer but you know…

This pragmatic response got me laughing.

Ferreri and her followers are correct. A lot of government spending – at federal, provincial and municipal levels –  could be cut in the name of economy.

We could start with Ms Ferreri herself. With a roughly $194,600 sessional salary, plus many expenses, Ms. Ferreri’s tampon tantrums seem like a real waste of our tax dollars.

Many of the comments to Ferreri’s video included a very negative “why should I pay (for someone else)”? theme. This is a concern that I see reinforced by conservative messaging. So far, Canadian society is geared to considering the needs of society as a whole rather than focusing on me-me-me.

I think the me-me-me attitude is small-spirited but if one were truly into austerity there are a lot of services that could be cut to reduce government spending.

• Sidewalks. Why waste money on sidewalks when we can walk on the street? (!)
• What about flowers and landscaping in the summer? Do we need to pay for flowers?
• Don’t get me started on holiday decorations: YOU and I are paying for all this.
• There are many transport options other than public: bike, car, taxis etc. Yes they are all more expensive than public transport but hey, if it’s “me-me-me” it’s “not-my-problem”.
• Painted crosswalks are a travesty! If a chicken can figure out how to get from one side of the road to the other, so can you.
• Municipal events and parades: I never go, so why should I pay for it?
• Libraries: the Twitter remarks are ample evidence that people are not reading anymore so why pay for the few who do?

Humour aside, political stunts bother me. Rather than using resources to inform the public honestly, they are staged to make people angry. They are meant to divert attention from real issues and keep people busy with the small stuff when they should be paying attention to things that affect their daily lives.

The performance bar for our representatives is getting lower. It’s so much easier for a politician like Ms. Ferreri to waste time making a mindless 3-minute TikTok video than it is to analyze issues and offer constructive criticisms and solutions.

Miss Ferreri’s tirade did leave me with one serious reflection. If the Conservatives are this upset about potential minuscule government waste like tampons, imagine what they would cut if they were elected!