Conservative ridings got most of Canada 150 cash
Conservative ridings disproportionately benefited from an election year fund aimed at improving community infrastructure such as parks and recreation centres, a Star analysis has found.
New data shows ridings won by the Conservatives in 2011 received 68.6 per cent of the roughly $106 million paid out in the first year of the Canada 150 community infrastructure program between June 2015 and June 2016.
Much of that money, about $46 million, was spent in seat-rich Ontario. British Columbia, a battleground in the last election, took in $17.5 million while the Conservative heartland of Alberta received $15.2 million.
Quebec, Canada’s second most populous province, had received only $3.7 million for projects as of June.
The Canada 150 community infrastructure program was announced by former prime minister Stephen Harper in the months leading up to the 2015 federal election. In May 2015, Harper told a crowd that the fund would benefit some 1,800 smaller-scale renovations and upgrades.
At the time, both the opposition New Democrats and Liberals called the program a “slush fund” for good news announcements leading up to the election. News releases from that summer touted dozens of announcements about upgrades to everything from schools to theatres to skating rinks.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/10/15/conservative-ridings-got-most-of-canada-150-cash.html