Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

More numbers

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, October 23, 2009 1:44am - 73 Comments

The CBC offers its analysis of stimulative spending.

According to the analysis of the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, Conservative ridings have received about 60 per cent of the funding, compared with 40 per cent for opposition ridings. For example, the Saskatchewan riding of Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale, who has been a vocal critic of the stimulus spending, has received about $4.8 million. But the Conservative riding next door received about $6.5 million. Crunching the numbers in a sample of other ridings across the country shows a similar pattern.

Meanwhile, McGregor & Maher look at what money from a specific fund for struggling communities went to what projects in the Industry Minister’s riding.

Tags: economy, infrastructure, Ralph Goodale, recession, stimulus, Tony Clement

More by Aaron Wherry

http://intensedebate.com/people/Ricard_S_Argent Ricard_S_Argent

(didn't do the math before you posted the link huh? ;)
Anon

The irony is that nothing seems to have gone to Calgary Southwest, yet the MP is being pelted with stones.
hosertohoosier

Clement isn't saying equally, he is saying fairly/equitably (ie. in response to the strategic interest of projects, the need of a community and the fundamentals of the project being proposed). There is a difference between the two.
hosertohoosier

Contrarian doesn't give any information on the projects that were turned down though, apart from where they were. Did they fit the guidelines or not? If not, were the guidelines fair? I listed those three questions because if you are going to accuse the government of corruption, you need to satisfy all three. If there is anything fishy going on, the aggrieved parties would certainly have the ability to make that case, since the criteria for approval are public, and since they presumably have a sense of whether they met the criteria.
Mike514

Wow! A 4 pt swing in favour of the Liberals!

More commonly referred to as the "margin of error."
OSL

Which means they could be 3% closer! Looking better.
Ted

I've got an idea.

Why doesn't the government release the data so we can all judge the pork. So that Kevin Page, Harper's Budget Chief can do his job.

From the information released, there is no question that there is huge favouratism going on. Whether that can be excused because "Conservative MPs work harder" as Harper is trying to claim or because "this favouratism to catch up for the Chretien years" as Tim Powers and Baird claim or because "our ridings are bigger" as Clement tries to claim or "there is no unfairness" as others have tried to claim (really you should get your answers straight), is an interesting secondary question.

Why won't Harper release the numbers and data like he promised? That way you could all figure out which is the best way to excuse this partisanship.
http://intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john_g2708

Baird was quoting Chretien's justification for taking credit for doling out pork, not for doling it out disproportionately. Chretien did have a quote to justify that too (which makes one wonder why you would advocate a return to Liberal governments if you're bitching about this, but that's another question for another day), but it wasn't repeated by Baird. Get your facts straight.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Ricard_S_Argent Ricard_S_Argent

I'll be sure to remember that the next time I see our favourite Dakotas or Jarrids extolling the latest poll showing the Conservatives gaining.

Agreed?
Dakota

If being 11 points back gets you excited Dick, then I'm happy for you.
Ted

When it goes from 15/16% back to 11% back in only one week of highlighting the reality of Harper's stimulus slush fund?

Yeah, that is a good week. Only a start, but no one is saying otherwise.
knick

"I'll start worrying when instead of investing funds in Canada and Canadians, the party in power starts diverting and misappropriating money to their own party, ie. ADSCAM."

Evidence?
Dakota

Yeah, where is my new Hockey rink? Where is a whining Liberal when you need one?
knick

Much as I dislike harping on the same old theme, if Harper & Co. would just release all the data, the whole issue of who got what would be resolved once and for all. Surely all this speculation is doing more harm than good. The longer they refuse to release the details, the more it looks like they have reason to believe that Canadians will not approve of how their money is being allocated.
Dakota

Why would they, this whole issue just highlights that Conservative MP's do more for their constituents then Liberal MP's.

Just ask the Ontario Liberals….

Or do the Liberals plan on blaming the Liberals for this one?
Dave

Yes, 5.1 million to build a 52 bed dorm at a sub campus. Money well spent, I'm sure.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

I'm not sure Blamo hit the nail on the head. The most likely scenario, through my rose-coloured glasses, is that Harper decreed that the stimulus money should be allocated equitably, according to the needs of provincial and local governments. The alleged push for a 90/10 split would have been politically fatal, if successful. Whatever you think of Harper's motives, it seems like the most politically expedient course of action would be to achieve an equitable distribution*, but also to promote the hell out of all the largesse that Parliament is forcing you to shovel out the back of a truck.

*That said, I'm sure many MPs were dutifully promoting the interests of their ridings, and the big question is whether this had any meaningful effect on the outcome.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

"I'm sure many MPs were dutifully promoting the interests of their ridings"

That raises an interesting constitutional question, n'est-ce pas? I mean, as you say, it's the duty of an MP to promote the interests of constituents, so it seems strange that we should be blaming them for having done so successfully. Yet one's instinct is that spending should be as equitable as possible. Something of a contradiction, at the heart of our notion of representative government?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Indeed. On the one hand, MPs from the governing party are expected to advance the interests of their constituents; on the other hand, the Canadian Government is supposed to ensure that all ridings are considered equally when it doles out largesse.

hosertohoosier

If we were spending money wisely, we probably wouldn't have a university of Nipissing at all… or a stimulus for that matter…

5 million seems more than reasonable for building a dorm though. In Texas, a dorm for about 572 people ran for 50 million. Considering that the cost per room drops as the size of a building increases, I'd say the price is about right.
http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

This has zero ring of truth to it. It supposes that the Conservatives are still such principled small-c conservatives that they would bring spite to bear on the dumb idea of shoveling future wealth into freshly dug holes.

Impossible. The last several months have proven that the big-c Conservatives have no principles worth defending at all.
http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

The MP for Calgary Southwest? Actually lives with his family in Ottawa. As for Calgary, he's just visiting.
Dakota

We'll see what next week looks like before we start talking about trends. The Liberals own polls must be just as grim, since Ignatieff has done another chicken little and run away from all his threats.

I’ll see you and Dick for next weeks update.