In May's general election, the Conservatives, nearly ran the table in the south and southwestern Ontario. Liberals were left with just Frank Valeriote in Guelph; the NDP have pockets of support in Windsor and Hamilton and one seat in each of Welland and London.
So it's no surprise, I suppose, that when Heritage Minister James Moore announced earlier this week funding from his department for 51 arts and culture projects in that part of the province, ridings held by Tory MPs cleaned up. (See Press Release: Harper Government Invests in Arts, Culture and Official Languages in Southwestern Ontario )
Here's the breakdown:
- The press release says Moore announced $1.93 million for “more than 50 projects” but I count $1.78 million for 51 projects in the backgrounder issued with the news release.
- The feds are funding 36 projects in ridings held by Conservative MPs. The combined value of those projets if $1.17 million.
- The feds are funding 8 projects in ridings held by NDP MPs. Combined value $206,300.
- The feds are funding 1 project in the Liberal-held riding in Guelph. It's worth $159,000.
- For six projects, we were unable to determine which riding the money would largely be spent in. Those six totalled $249,000.
- Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, who represents the riding of Niagara Falls, is the big winner on the money side, scoring $316,648 in grants for two projects.
- Stephen Woodworth, who represents Kitchener Centre will get the most photo ops. Five projects in his riding worth $282,108 got funding.
- Other big winners: Larry Miller (Owen Sound) with 5 projects worth $48,300; Peter Braid (Kitchener-Waterloo) with 4 projects/$80,900; Rick Dykstra (St. Catharines) with 3 projects for $133,212 and NDP MP David Christopherson (Hamilton Centre) with 3/$38,000
These funds came out of the following Heritage Canada programs: Canada Cultural Investment Fund (Strategic Initiatives Component), Canada Cultural Investment Fund (Endowment Incentives Component), the Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage Program, the Canada Arts Presentation Fund, and the Cooperation with the Community Sector component of the Development of Official-Language Communities Program. Given the amount of time it takes for most funding applications to these programs to be processed, it's likely safe to assume that most applications had been with departmental bureaucrats since before the May 2 election.