The communications masterminds in the Harper government are taking advantage of the fact that MPs are back in their ridings this week to co-ordinate vast “messaging campaigns” — the goal being to win a headline, photo or other notice in local or regional media in which the local MP gets to sing the praises of a government program. Today's theme is the Knowledge Infrastructure Program or KIP. KIP was a $2 billion fund — one of a few infrastructure funds – set up at the beginning of the recession as part of the government's so-called Economic Action Plan.
While there is some reasonable evidence that other infrastructure programs, particularly the Recreational Infrastructure Fund (RiNC) were used to funnel money to ridings held by Conservatives, the KIP program seems to have been the reverse of that: Money from that program went disproportionately to ridings held by the Liberals and the NDP. That would seem to make sense on that face of it: RiNC was for hockey arenas and ball fields. Conservatives tend to hold geographically large ridings in rural and small-town Canada — and every town in those large ridings probably found park or arena that needed fixing. KIP money, though, is reserved for new projects by colleges and universities which tend to be clustered in urban areas where you tend to find the country's Liberal and, to a degree, NDP MPs.
But I digress: What I really want to do was show you how thick the calendar is. And these are only the events the Parliamentary Press Gallery was told about. There are likely many other events put on by a local MP who didn't bother to alert the national press about it. All times here have been converted from local time to Ottawa time:
- 08:00 – 08:30 | Minister KEITH ASHFIELD – KIP announcement (Fredericton, NB)
- 08:30 – 09:30 | Minister TED MENZIES KIP announcement (Halifax, NS)
- 09:00 – 10:00 | MP Bernard Genereux – Possible KIP announcement (La Pocatiere, QC)
- 09:00 – 09:30 | Minister CHRISTIAN PARADIS – KIP Announcement (Thetford Mines, QC)
- 09:30 – 10:30 | SEN Fabian Manning – KIP announcement (Conception Bay South, NF)
- 09:50 – 10:15 | LPC MICHAEL IGNATIEFF and MP Denis Coderre- Photo op (Montreal, QC)
- 10:00 – 11:00 | MP Terence Young – KIP announcement (Oakville, ON)
- 10:00 – 11:00 | Minister GARY GOODYEAR and MP Gary Schellenberger – Small biz announcement (Stratford, ON)
- 10:00 – 11:00 | Canadian Council for Policy Alternatives – Alternative Budget (130-S)
- 10:00 – 11:00 | MP Bruce Stanton – KIP announcement (Orillia, ON)
- 10:00 – 11:00 | Minister JAMES MOORE – Language announcement (Saint Hyacinthe, QC)
- 11:00 – 12:00 | Minister DIANE FINLEY – Social housing announcement (London, ON)
- 11:00 – 12:00 | Minister JULIAN FANTINO – Social housing announcement (Scarborough, ON)
- 11:00 – 12:00 | Minister STEVEN FLETCHER – KIP announcement
- 11:15 – 11:45 | MIN ROB MOORE – KIP announcement (Moncton, NB)
- 11:30 – 12:30 | Minister VIC TOEWS – Safety announcement (Regina, SK)
- 11:30 – 12:00 | LPC MICHAEL IGNATIEFF – Media Avail (Montreal, QC)
- 12:00 – 13:00 | Minister GAIL SHEA – KIP Announcement (Charlottetown, PE)
- 12:00 – 13:00 | Minister RONA AMBROSE – KIP announcement (Edmonton, AB)
- 12:00 – 12:30 | MP Laurie Hawn – KIP announcement (Edmonton, AB)
- 12:00 – 13:00 | MP Shelly Glover – Agri-Health Research
- 12:00 – 13:00 | MP Merv Tweed – Small biz announcement (Souris, MB)
- 12:00 – 13:00 | Minister LYNNE YELICH – KIP announcement (Saskatoon, SK)
- 12:15 – 13:15 | MP Alice Wong KIP announcement (Richmond, BC)
- 12:30 – 13:30 | Minister JAMES MOORE and MP Jacques Gourde – KIP announcement (Drummondville, QC)
- 12:45 – 13:45 | MIN PETER VAN LOAN – Speech on Africa (Toronto, ON)
- 13:00 – 14:00 | Minister GARY GOODYEAR – KIP announcement (Waterloo, ON)
- 13:00 – 13:30 | PM HARPER, MIN STOCKWELL DAY, MP Nina Grewal, and MP Dona Cadman – photo opp (Surrey, BC)
- 13:00 – 14:00 | Minister CHRISTIAN PARADIS – Snowmobile cash (Saint-Sebastian, QC)
- 13:00 – 14:00 | Minister KEITH ASHFIELD – Funding announcement (Edmundston, NB)
- 13:45 – 14:45 | MIN GARY LUNN – KIP announcement (Victoria, BC)
- 14:00 – 15:00 | Minister JOHN BAIRD – KIP announcement (Ottawa, ON)
- 14:00 – 15:00 | Minister DIANE FINLEY and MP Ed Holder – KIP Announcement (London, ON)
- 14:00 – 15:00 | Minister DENIS LEBEL – KIP announcement (Trois-Rivieres, QC)
- 14:30 – 15:30 | PM HARPER, MIN STOCKWELL DAY – announcement (Vancouver, BC)
- 15:00 – 15:30 | MP Ed Fast – Agriculture announcement (Abbotsford, BC)
- 15:30 – 16:30 | MP Laurie Hawn – Funding announcement – YMCA (Edmonton, AB)
- 16:00 – 17:00 | Minister DIANE ABLONCZY – KIP announcement (Calgary, AB)
- 16:00 – 17:00 | Minister ROB MERRIFIELD – Infrastructure announcement (Yellowknife, NT)