Ontario Will Celebrate Canada’s 150 Year Anniversary With A $200,000 Rubber Duck

The Canadian province of Ontario is planning on renting a 30,000 lb, six-story tall rubber duck to help celebrate Canada’s 150th Anniversary this July, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

The duck will float into Toronto’s waterfront for Canada Day celebrations, and will sport a dapper sign, saying “Happy Birthday, Canada on its side.

After visiting Toronto, the duck will travel to other locations, including Brockville, Amherstburg, and Sault Ste. Marie—the more people who see this giant boondoggle, the better.

Ontario’s party planners say that it will be a big hit on twitter, and are planning to make it go viral with the edgy hashtag #whattheduck.

For what purpose? Who knows.

And really, who cares.

There’s no rational way to justify this kind of bizarre government spending anyways. Instead, here’s a video of the duck when it made a trip to the US.

Although 90% of the costs are covered by grants from the provincial and federal government, planners insist that the duck is actually a good investment—in fact, they claim it will make money.

Jeff Costen, press secretary for Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, says that every dollar spent will trigger $20 in visitor spending.

So why not rent 10 ducks? 10,000 ducks?

Because it’s a lie. Ever hear of the broken window’s fallacy? That’s all this is.

There’s no way the duck will make anyone money—except maybe the owner of the duck, who’s been traveling the world since 2007 with his creation, making juicy profits.

Unless it happens to explode. Which has happened before.

Now keep in mind, it’s not really the spending per se that’s the problem: Canada’s 150 year anniversary is worth celebrating, but this duck just isn’t the right fit.

What do rubber ducks have to do with Canada’s history?

Not much.

But beyond that, Ontario is the world’s most indebted sub-sovereign entity—is it really worth paying debt on the rubber ducky for decades?

Probably not.

But in the end, I suppose it’s better than wasting money trying to re-freeze the Arctic using windmills.