That giant yellow duck: Is it an attraction, or a rip-off?

That giant yellow duck is causing a flap for all the wrong reasons.

You might have heard of this “world’s largest” rubber duck, six stories high. It has been rented by the Redpath Waterfront Festival in Toronto to add pizzazz to the Canada 150 celebrations.

Or, as one wag has termed it, the “ses-quack-centennial.”

It’s a “waste of money,” said Christine Van Geyn of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who objects to the fact that the provincial government is subsidizing the Canada Day weekend festival for $121,000, and therefore bears part of the responsibility for the fowl deed.

She dumped hundreds of smaller yellow rubber ducks on the grounds at Queen’s Park the other day to make her point.

Let it be noted, however, that the province didn’t directly pay for the rental of the duck, but supported the entire festival, which includes a lumberjack show (think log-rolling and axe-throwing) and a Royal Canadian Navy frigate to explore.

The duck will also be touring other places near large bodies of water, such as Owen Sound, Amherstburg, and Sault Ste. Marie. (Sadly, the Grand River isn’t a big enough bathtub, so Waterloo Region is not a stop on the tour.)

“Don’t forget your selfie stick!” says the festival website, which also, predictably, offers the chance to buy “exclusive Big Duck merchandise.”

Supporters believe that the duck will draw tourists, so they reason it will be worth the money.

And why complain, given some other 150th-birthday projects funded by government?

The giant duck is more imaginative than the giant Canadian flag that citizens of Windsor already hoisted on a large pole. It’s as gimmicky as the Red Couch Tour, which uses $198,000 of public funds to haul a red sofa across the country so that people can sit on it and be recorded saying what Canada means to them.

In the past, other artists have made thought-provoking “installations” on giant bodies of

water — for example, Tom Dean’s floating staircase in the 1970s.

This duck is a huge sculpture that serves to “downsize the human,” said the original creator of the giant duck, Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman.

But the duck’s real problem is that it is inauthentic, in two ways.

First off, there is a dispute between Hofman and someone who used his design to create his own rubber duck. The imitator claims that yellow rubber duckies are in the public domain. (Of course, Canada is getting the counterfeit duck.)

But also, this duck has nothing to do with Canada.

When it comes to oversized monuments, Sudbury has its instantly recognizable Big Nickel. Colborne, on Highway 401 east of Toronto, has the Big Apple (no, not New York City, but “the world’s largest apple-shaped structure”). Wawa, in northwestern Ontario, has a giant Canada goose statue, hilariously billed as “Most Photographed Landmark in North America.”

But nickel is part of Sudbury’s long industrial history. Colborne actually has apple orchards. Canada geese are Canadian. On the other hand, a giant yellow rubber duck just makes us feel small, and overwhelmed by cuteness.