Poet Laureate
December 9, 2025
I never fail to be amazed by the new and creative ways our governments find to spend our money. I swear there are armies of bureaucrats out there laying awake at night dreaming of how best to separate us from our hard-earned cash.
Case in point is a recent posting from the City of St. Catharines, calling for applications from local poets for a one-year appointment as Poet Laureate. The Poet Laureate will serve as an artistic ambassador for the City, they say, using poetry to engage residents, celebrate civic pride, and enrich public life through readings, special initiatives, and cultural events connected to the history and culture of St. Catharines.
The selected candidate will also create and present original poems to mark key civic occasions, including events related to the 150th anniversary, serve as an advocate for poetry and the literary arts across the community and work collaboratively with Cultural Services staff. Why there is a Cultural Services department at all begs another huge question. But I digress.
Preference may be given to poets whose work engages with St. Catharines’ diverse histories, communities, and cultures, in alignment with the City’s Culture Plan and commitments to equity, inclusion, and Truth and Reconciliation, they say. Clearly, free thinkers and anyone who dares to question official government narratives are not welcome to apply. Welcome to the Union of Canadian Soviet Republics.
Soon to become the new Canadian flag.
To be fair, the posted honorarium is only $2,500. In the big picture, it’s like spitting in a bucket. But this is just not a core function of government. Any government. And the same people who think it’s perfectly acceptable for a municipal government to be signing off on hiring a poet are the same people who have no problem flushing $1 million of your money and mine down the toilet for DEI, sinking half a million into that downtown toilet/brothel and giving away a $2 million property for a homeless shelter. Among many other silly expenditures.
A bunch of little things become a big thing pretty quickly. That’s why property taxes are soaring out of control. Not because of roads and sewers, but because people like Mat Sendzcoe Siscoe can’t bring themselves to say no to privileged special interests.
If Sendzcoe Siscoe thinks it’s such a good idea to pay a poet, let him write a check from his own bank account.
Not mine.
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