In the same week that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation launched its federal debt clock, dozens of Conservative ministers and MPs are fanning out across the country with cheques in their hand to announce, re-announce, and otherwise dish out federal funds.
Here's the scorecard:
On Mon Feb 21:
There were 16 funding announcements with a total value of $44.3 million. Of those:
- Nine announcements $21 million benefit Conservative ridings only.
- Four announcements worth $19.1 million benefit ridings held by MPs of at least two different political parties.
- Two announcements worth $108,000 benefit NDP ridings.
- One announcement worth $4 million benefits a Liberal riding.
On Tue Feb 22 (so far):
There were 20 funding announcements worth a total of $211.5 million.
- 11 announcements worth $10.1 million were for Conservative ridings.
- Three announcements worth $157 million were for Liberal ridings. (Just one of those was the $155 million re-announcement at CFB Esquimalt for a new helicopter operations centre.)
- Three announcements worth $1.6 million were for NDP ridings.
- Three announcements worth $42.5 million benefit regions or ridings held by multiple parties.
So far, there have been no announcements that benefit ridings exclusively held by the Bloc Quebecois.
On Wed Feb 23, I count at least eleven funding announcements beginning with ACOA Minister Keith Ashfield at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton at 0830 ET.