Show Us The Money

Twenty years ago, Doug Hartle wrote about the expenditure budgetary process of the government of Canada and described it in theatrical terms as “an amalgam of a Greek tragedy, a medieval morality play, and a Hollywood western: the same story is re-enacted time after time; the players may differ but the basic roles are the same; changes occur in the presentation over time that, in part consciously and in part unconsciously, reflect the changes in the background against which the performance takes place.” (1)

The Politics of Public Money: Spenders, Guardians, Priority Setters and Financial Watchdogs inside the Canadian Government by David Good examines the federal expenditure budgetary process from the 1970s to the present in terms of four major actors in that process—spenders, guardians, priority setters and financial watchdogs. The focus, Good believes, has expanded from a simple bilateral relationship between the departmental spenders (including internal...