Earlier this year, a Conservative candidate claimed that his party could get stimulus money out faster, and more effectively. This past weekend, I heard one of the campaign workers for the Conservative candidate in this riding make pretty much the same claim to an employee in Tim Horton's. It seems the candidates are fine with this arrangement, though it is one that the upeer eschelons of the Conservative Government deny.
The Chronicle Herald and Ottawa Citizen conducted a joint investigation into these assertions, and found that this is true.
On all stimulus projects worth $1 million or more, Conservative ridings took home 57% of the share, while only holding 46% of the seats. So, the Conservative ridings, are on average, receiving 23% more of the big stimulus projects than they would if the money were distributed evenly.
In Quebec, the disparity is even wider. Conservative ridings received 22% of the large project spending, while only holding 13 per cent of the ridings in Quebec. That is, 62% higher than if the money were evenly distributed! This problem is exacerbated further, in that the province has 23% of the national population, and only 7% of the projects listed on the Action Plan website.
This seems fishy when polls are suggesting that the ten seats the Tories hold in Quebec are at risk of being lost in an election.
It should be noted however that there is no list as of yet which lists total project spending. The Action Plan website places projects into four categorical ranges of spending. Prime Minister Harper last month promised to make such a list public.
Read the full details here:
Carving up the pork - Nova Scotia News - TheChronicleHerald.ca
The Chronicle Herald and Ottawa Citizen conducted a joint investigation into these assertions, and found that this is true.
On all stimulus projects worth $1 million or more, Conservative ridings took home 57% of the share, while only holding 46% of the seats. So, the Conservative ridings, are on average, receiving 23% more of the big stimulus projects than they would if the money were distributed evenly.
In Quebec, the disparity is even wider. Conservative ridings received 22% of the large project spending, while only holding 13 per cent of the ridings in Quebec. That is, 62% higher than if the money were evenly distributed! This problem is exacerbated further, in that the province has 23% of the national population, and only 7% of the projects listed on the Action Plan website.
This seems fishy when polls are suggesting that the ten seats the Tories hold in Quebec are at risk of being lost in an election.
It should be noted however that there is no list as of yet which lists total project spending. The Action Plan website places projects into four categorical ranges of spending. Prime Minister Harper last month promised to make such a list public.
Read the full details here:
Carving up the pork - Nova Scotia News - TheChronicleHerald.ca
