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

Notable use of adjective

by Aaron Wherry on Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:16am - 0 Comments

Transport Minister Chuck Strahl, responding yesterday to a question about the proposed arena for Quebec City.

Mr. Speaker, of course many Canadians are proud sports fans. They support their sports team wherever they happen to be in all regions of this country and that is great to see. It brings not only cultural opportunities but also economic opportunities across the country.

These initiatives are primarily led by private sector interests. In the case of the NHL, these are wealthy owners along with wealthy hockey players who bring us a lot of fun, but they need to take the lead on this and we look forward to any leadership they might show in the private sector as we move forward with this kind of initiative.

Tags: arena, Chuck Strahl, house of commons, nordiques, Parliament, Quebec, Quebec City, Question Period

More by Aaron Wherry

Kat

This makes me angry. Why was it even discussed in the first place.

Vote buying in Quebec? Enough already!
Dave

Thank you for the boldface, as I didn't know which adjective I was supposed to find notable.

Richard_S_Argent

I'm still not seeing it…which adjective was Wherry referring to?

——

edit: nevermind – I just saw the updated version :)

tedbetts

They really are not the Conservatives of 2005-2008. It has taken almost 4 weeks before they have settled on a consistent framing for their position on the arena funding issue that doesn't completely on its face contradict everything else they are telling Canadians. So now the reason for the lack of funding here (but funding elsewhere) is that NHL owners and players are wealthy.

Will they stick to this frame? Who knows. But it seems they've been extremely slow and disjointed and bizarre in their messaging for some time now: on census, gross waste and spending, billion dollar boondoggle of G20 spending, gun registry, etc.

The glasses don't seem to be giving them any better focus.
LynnTO

I found the "who bring us a lot of fun" more notable. Seemed an interesting conflation of litotes for some, hyperbole for others.
tedbetts

What? You think Stephen Harper is trying to have his cake and eat it too? That he would try to have it both ways? Kinda like saying "separatist" in English (with a scowl and furrowed brow) but being careful to always only say "souveaintist" in French? Or how he is fiscally responsible because he plans, one day some day somewhere in the future, to hope to balance the budget but at the same time brags about how important it was to the economy that the government came to its rescue with record spending?

Say it an't so!
http://my.opera.com/ZakMichigan/blog/ Jean Chicoine

I don't watch sports, I don't enjoy sports, I'm not a hockey fan, or a follower of any other sport for that matter, and as far as I'm concerned I don't think it's the government's business to financially support private interrests.
I'm from Québec, born and raised in Montréal, living in Winnipeg for the last 20 years, and I really couldn't care for the Canadiens or the Nordiques or the Jets. Let the private interests deal with the market. That's their job, not the government's job.
Richard_S_Argent

Was there anything preventing Quebec City from applying for stimulus cash to build this arena? I suspect that a big part of the issue here is that the project has been explicitly linked to the NHL – where billionaires make men millionaires for playing a game.

If this was framed as infrastructure improvement – after all Le Colisee *is* old and in need of upgrade – I don't think we'd have seen such an uproar over this. In other words, it would've been easier to see this as something other than corporate welfare.
LaxAtlDfwYow

The government is buying time to do detailed polling on the issue and determine how to craft/spin a federal contribution to minimize damage outside QC. Meanwhile, they set themselves up to be tough cops of the public purse if and when PKP tosses them some token millions and has a deal for a team.

Look for the arena announcement just prior to the election call.
Dot

And her I thought this was more interesting.

as we move forward with this kind of initiative
Jenn_

You are very right. I'd have had no problem with Quebec City getting a replacement arena along with the other arenas in other places as part of the Economic Action Plan. I'd much rather have seen their arena than any Gazebos, for instance. Of course, the EAP required the provincial government to kick in as well, and I'm sure they would have required the city to do likewise. And if I was the city, province or Feds, I'd have been happy to take a third of a substantial monthly lease from any NHL team that happened along.

But the idea that a proposed NHL owner gets to demand an arena be built for him on the off-chance that he'll become an NHL owner, and on the off-chance that he'll locate a team there, well, that's just nuts.