$1,261,000

That's what Redford's imperious personal inner staff were paid.  And still she couldn't get it right.  Here's how it breaks down:

Chief of staff:                              $357,000
Communications director              231,000
Principal secretary                         200,000
Director of operations                    208,000
Ass. Director of operations            130,000
Press secretary                                135,000

The most scandalous of a reprehensible lot has got to be the communications director.  This guy was paid a fortune to "advise" her on how to handle her PR mess.  Better throw in the press secretary on that one, another obvious incompetent.  As a career communications, journalist and PR professional, I know of what I speak.  Was she listening to no one?  That may be.  Many presidents and senior politicians who paid me to advise them didn't listen, often with dire consequences.  They didn't get the primary premise that "perception is reality".  "Reality" is neither what they'd like to think, nor what they tell themselves.  "Reality" in the public thoroughfare is what "George and Martha" are thinking -- usually represented by the media.  (Note to Stephen Harper:  Are you listening?)  That's what Klein got perfectly.   

As a communications and PR advisor, you have to think like the general public -- something politicians such as Redford are incapable of.  Why did Redford need both a director of operations and an assistant director?  Was it that hard to keep her office clean and vacuumed?  Was it that hard to get the planes ready?  Why did she need both a communications director and press secretary, both with basically the same jobs?

To put it into perspective, in an earlier era, when my Uncle Elgin Armstrong was Federal Deputy Minister of National Defence, he and three of his senior colleagues at the top-ranked DM 3 level weren't paid among them what the communications director alone was paid.  Not even close.  They might have made $45,000 each.  Bob Bryce, deputy minister of Finance; Gordon Robertson, clerk of the Privy Council Office, and Uncle Elgin all drove themselves around and worked in tiny offices with rickety furniture best suited for firewood.  They had one secretary each, no entourage and literally ran the country.  Uncle Elgin also drove us to high school before he himself went to work.  Just ordinary "Joe's" working as ordinary and dedicated public servants. 

"The PC party has a hell of a lot of good people in it, but I am profoundly disappointed by how Redford has been treated.  Elements in this party and caucus decided their interests were more important than the people's," said Stephan Baranski, genius and infamous director of communications.

Well, duh!  Of course the party's interests come before little Alison's feelings.  There's a guy who had no idea who "George and Martha" were, in spite of being paid a king's ransom.  Oh, and the guy who is replacing Queen Alison until a new leader is chosen?  Another one who doesn't get it.  Amid the hullabaloo about the $1 million severance payout the above-clowns will receive, the perceptive and savvy Dave Hancock added, "There are obviously changes when there is a transition.  Now when we have change, people want to complain about the cost of people leaving."  Stunning. 

Toodle loo.