The Garden City Refugee

One Every Minute

May 18, 2026

In perhaps too obvious of a statement, most of us don’t like paying taxes. We go out of our way to avoid giving any more to our governments than we absolutely have to.

But there are those who freely hand over even more than what the government takes by force.

Such as the guy with a diabetic patch on his arm in front of me in line this morning at the Avondale in St. David’s. Even before I walked in the store, he was busy with the clerk, who was systematically checking each and every one of the guy’s lottery tickets. Some were winners. Others weren’t. This seemed to go on forever. The guy had a huge stack of them. But when it was all said and done, this was his lucky day, because he came out $28 to the good.

Watching this all transpire, I figured he’d grab his money and run back to his black pickup truck, parked outside.

Not so fast.

Instead, he started asking for more. I “need” this one. I “need” that one. Six of these. Two of those. This guy has a problem, I thought. When he was finally finished, his total came to $49 over and above his winnings. He paid $45 in cash and put the rest on a CIBC credit card.

All I could think of was that old line about a sucker being born every minute.

And he’s clearly one of the biggest suckers of them all.