My colleague Andrew Mayeda reports that Conservative Jason Kenney, his party's point man in Canada's immigrant communities, accuses the Liberals of playing dirty pool when it comes to ethnic politics:
Kenney slams Liberal ethnic outreach
Tory accuses Grits of funneling grants to 'community godfathers'
Published: Thursday, July 31, 2008LEVIS, Que. – The man charged with spearheading the Harper government's “ethnic-outreach” efforts has accused former Liberal governments of running “Tammany Hall”-style operations that funneled grants to local immigrant “godfathers.”
“Typically, I think, the Liberals pursued what some people have called an ethnic-brokerage model of outreach, where they would identify leaders of certain groups who somehow magically would become the recipients of substantial grants and subsidies for their community organizations,” Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism, said when asked how his government's approach differs from that of the Liberals.
Sifting through the press releases issued by Kenney's government in the 41 days since Parliament recessed we find some similar “grants and subsidies” for community organizations. No doubt, many Canadians, of all political stripes, might find some of this perfectly worthy of taxpayer support:
- Canada Helps New Canadians Get Jobs (July 28) Senator Hugh Segal makes $800,000 announcement in Toronto
- Canada Supports Mississauga Chinese Arts Festival (July 9). MP Wajid Khan announces $20,000 in support.
- Canada Supports 2008 Taste of Asia Festival (June 28) MP Colin Carrie announces $25,000 for Markham, Ont. event.
- Minister MacKay Announces Support for Newcomers to Settle and Integrate in Halifax (June 27) MP Peter MacKay announces $10.3 million in funding.
- Canada Provides Funding to Ethiopian Association to Help Newcomers in Toronto (June 23) MP Mike Wallace announces $2.2 million in funding.
- Canada helps immigrants and members of visible minorities get job (June 23) MP Betty Hinton announces $244,599
- Air India memorial re-dedicated in Ottawa on National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism (June 23) MP Jason Kenney announces $70,000 for program.
- Canada Supports the Ottawa Dragon Boat Race Festival (June 21) MP Royal Galipeau announces $12,500 in funding
As an aside, to update a story I did a couple of weeks ago in which I noted that number of spending announcements the government is making this summer, there have now been more than 213 spending announcements since June 21 which carry a combined price tag of $11.3-billion.
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I don't remember any press coverage of the liberals spending lots of money on the ethnic vote…I am sure there were….care to post them???……I bet not.
I would have to do a bit more research, but it's true, the Liberals' very liberal spending announcements were not met with much criticism in the MSM when they were in power.
Probably many would dismiss the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation as just another arm of the Conservative Party, but it is interesting to read what they had to say in 2005:
http://www.taxpayer.com/pdf/Liberal_Pre-Election_Spending_2005.pdf
“With all signs pointing to a spring election, the Liberal government is once again ramping up spending in a shameless attempt to bribe voters with their own money.
Previous to last year’s federal election, (from April 1st, 2004, until mid-May) the Liberals spent almost $7-billion of taxpayers’ money in pre-election spending announcements. This worked out to approximately $150-million per day.
Since April 20th, 2005, the day before Paul Martin begged for his job on national television, the Liberals have made over 250 spending announcements totaling over $17-billion of taxpayers’ money. This works out to $607-million per day or over $25-million every hour.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation will be updating the 2005 pre-election “Pork-o-metre” on a weekly basis, so voters have the facts on how the federal Liberals are spending your hard-earned tax dollars.
Ottawa’s pre-election spending binge
by Adam Taylor, Research Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation”
There are long lists of those spending announcements to be found at the above link.
Also illuminating is a read of then Finance Minister Ralph Goodale's 2004 budget speech, when he said:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/budget04/speech/speeche.htm
“… Some have suggested that we will throw fiscal caution to the wind. We will not.
Some have said that we will engage in a pre-election spending spree. We will not.
Some have said that we will play fast and loose with the economic progress Canadians have worked so hard to achieve. We will not.
What we will do is make important investments in such key areas as health care, communities and learning, for these are the social foundations upon which Canadians will build better lives.”