A message from Stephen Harper: I've got big cuts in mind for Canadians but not for me and my buddies. Suck on it Canada.

Today Prime Minister Stephen Harper illustrated very clearly his priorities: cuts for Canadians, but not for Stephen Harper, his family, and Conservative Buddies.

At 4:32pm ET the Prime Minister's office issued the following:

Not disclosed in the advisory is the fact that James Moore (Twitter), and Harper's daughter, are going along for the trip. Also not highlighted is the cost to Canadian taxpayers for this junket.

When Stephen Harper was Leader of the Official Opposition one of his M.P.s, Jason Kenney [1], calculated that it cost $11,000 an hour to run the government's Challenger jets, the same jet that will ferry Stephen Harper and his party down to Boston. That cost does not include the additional costs for security which will be incurred. Using Kenney's own figures a conservative estimate of the cost of this joy ride will run to some figure between thirty and fifty thousand dollars.

That's your government at work, closing down programs because they are deemed inessential but spending up to fifty thousand dollars to send two men and a child to a hockey game in Boston.

Ron Cannan (Twitter), a B.C. Conservative MP, is attempting to defend the indefensible on CBC's Power & Politics right now. Mr. Cannan, you are failing miserably at the task, but you know that already of course because there is nothing you can say in defense of this wasteful spending by your leader, Stephen Harper.

Every single lay off, every single program cut, every single "no" issued by the Treasury Board should now be evaluated in this light.

Great work Prime Minister, you just made the opposition's job much easier.

What you can do:

• Write a letter to your paper
• Visit the Twitter links for Cannan and Moore and let them know how you feel
• Vote in the CBC Question of the Day poll ("Is it appropriate for the Prime Minister to attend tonight's Stanley Cup game in Boston?")

PS: To the opposition, official and otherwise, you might also recall that in September 2009 Jim Flaherty used a government jet to fly him and his wife from Ottawa to Montreal to go to a party for Brian Mulroney. Please do you jobs and hold these jokers to account. Canadians of all political stripes are angered by politicians living high on the hog at our expense.