"The majority of Canadians living in opposition ridings have been massively short-changed so that the Conservatives can get far more than their share," Kennedy (Parkdale-High Park) said in question period.In my opinion, these accusations simply don't add up. If in fact the government was trying to make some subtle political gains through these specific infrastructure projects - other than the obvious demonstration that they have Canada's economic future at heart - the Conservatives would certainly have opted for another strategy.
If local political gains were really the goal here, they would not be mostly focusing on Conservative held ridings, but on swing ridings where they could pull the rug from under an opponent's feet. While it may look advantageous to Kennedy that the government is funding projects where their support lies, a better mid-to-long term political strategy would target non-conservative ridings, in a bid to gain ground in those areas in a future election.
The government has nothing to gain by "punishing" ridings that did not vote for them. This would go counter stream from the expansion efforts of the CPC, towards an eventual majority.
I think this is another case of Liberals hunting for a scandal. Only three days after supporting the government and its budget, it appears the Liberals are already getting antsy and looking for a fight - by manipulating the facts. Shameful.
7 comments:
Yeh, well...we all know this government just isn't capable of miscalculating or anything, is it?
Kennedy is the MP in my area and maybe he could tell me where the AdScam money went to , and where is the remaining $140 Million that went to Liberal-friendly projects .
The Liberals still think they have the Right to be the Party Of Canada , what arrogance from a ship of folls and thieves.
It truly befuddles me how the Liberals are constantly accusing the Conservatives of everything under the sun and it's somehow the conservatives who are bullies, accusatory, vicious and impossible to work with??? Honestly if they could SOMEHOW... just once get on with the governing issues of the country instead of constantly finding fault then maybe we could get somewhere. It's getting so boring how they freik out over everything!!! Adler was saying today that when Bush was in office, nothing AMERICAN was acceptable. Now with OBAMA in power...Canadians are losers??? Heather Malick is an embarassement!
Every day we're hearing something new about this disaster of a budget document...and things are only going to get worse.
I'm sure Harper will campaign on the fact that he had to cave to Liberal demands in order to prevent yet another election.
Caz:
Except there are some irrefutable facts here. 78% of the infrastructure money is in Tory ridings.
And to your point about a better strategy Capital C, I think you are bang on. I looked again at the ridings and suddenly it clicked. That is exactly what the Cons did: they targetted swing ridings. How else do explain the huge discrepancy between announced projects and funded projects - only about 20% of the projects have actually been funded (more broken promises). Couple that with an odd array of cities that WERE funded: Fredericton, Cambridge, Oshawa, Burlington, Ottawa, Regina. These are swing ridings, right beside a Liberal or an NDP riding.
Clever strategy but it assumes that Canadians are dumb and the Cons have been making that assumption for far too long. Canadians allowed Harper's arrogance because they disliked the alternative so much but now there is a real opposition and the corruption and incompetence of this government are finally coming to light and starting, just starting, to get some coverage by the Conservative-pliant media.
Better call up your favourite Conservative MP quick. Your chance for some of the dough is almost up.
Not like the Liberals, were it most likely go to Quebec or the Liberal puffins will have it hidden somewhere.
It would be important to mention that the "Conservatives" are not the only ones making the decisions here.
The department of Transport, Infra and Communities has thousands upon thousands of bureaucrats who sift through project proposals and they are the ones who bring them forward to the Minister for approval.
Also, we cannot neglect the possible fact that government MPs were quicker in submitting projects in their ridings, under the Building Canada fund. Which may also explain this discrepancy.
As for the swing riding strategy, one that you Ted, believe is actually being followed - I would like to see the list of all the projects and their location before jumping to conclusions.
Again, the key here is to judge the facts, not half the facts or none of the facts.
Opinions are nice and all, I just think that before we start throwing accusations we should know what we are talking about.
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