It's hard not to get a little cynical about politics when you see press releases like this one. Christian Paradis (right), one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's favourite Quebec MPs, and the minister of natural resources, celebraed Canada Day in Thetford Mines, where about 25,000 people live in the heart of his riding of Megantic-L'Erable, and he did it with a $35,000 cheque from the federal government.
Canada Days are, of course, perfectly suitable things for federal governments to help fund. Indeed, as my colleague Laura Payton reported earlier this week, the celebration on Parliament Hill yesterdaay with Queen Elizabeth II is costing us an extra $1.1 million. I know hardcore opponents of government spending like Kevin Gaudet's group at the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation think this sort of thing is a waste of money but my gut instinct says that most Canadians don't mind having their tax dollars used for a free, giant party in the nation's capital when the Queen's in town.
But I'll bet there's towns and villages all over Canada yesterday where volunteers and service clubs have scrimped and saved to put on their own Canada Day celebrations. And I'll bet lots and lots of those towns and villages would like to have had $35,000 in federal grants “invested” in the their town to throw a party.
But that $35,000 went to a Conservative in a riding the Conservatives absolutely have to have in Quebec's eastern townships. Think the Tories would ever throw that kind of money at Alberta where they're a lock to win most seats? (Not that, I'm told, Albertans want any help from the federal government, but still…)
This iteration of Harper's government has now been in power for 625 days. In that time, they've made more than 4,200 announcements in which they've handed out money or announced funding for this or that project. Of those, 1,200 announcements — better than one-quarter of them all — have been made in and or are for the province of Quebec. And while Quebec seems to be getting roughly its fair share of total spending — about $14 billion of the more than $82 billion the government's handed out since last elected — Conserative politicians spend a lot more time standing around with cheques in that province than anywhere else in Canada, presumably in the hope that if they Quebecers lots and lots of attention that way, that will translate into electoral gains at the next election.
Meanwhile, as Thetford Mines and Christian Paradis celebrated Canada's birthday with $35,000 worth of the country's money, the rest of us in parts of the country that are not so important politically to the government partied under own steam, with the help of some local governments, volunteers, and whatever loonies we were able to dig up from under the couch.