Paradis brings home $35,000 of Canada Day bacon

Christian Paradis

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.

2 thoughts on “Paradis brings home $35,000 of Canada Day bacon”

  1. What a joke, more money wasted. ESL Paradis, ESL. This is just sick!!! Our money hard at work…just sickening. What a joke this country has become. We now have over 3.5 million people working for government across the country. Just sickening! Average salary in government is about 70 thousand yearly and rising. Average salary in the private sector is around 45 thousand yearly and dropping. Over 10% of government employees now make over 100 thousand yearly. In the private sector the number is under 2%. Nice eh? Look to Greece and Quebec, this is where Canada is headed if we don’t stop equalization and get spending and government growth under control. This tax and spend, union, socialist, big government, social engineering that has been destroying this country has got to stop. Yes, it has left Quebec and has been spreading throughout the rest of the country since the 1970”s. Thanks Trudeau, Tanks kebec.
    The Liberals and Conservatives have spent the last few decades destroying Ontario and Canada’s economy, its English speaking history and culture, not to mention the racism, bigotry, ethnic language cleansing and human rights violations going on in Quebec, bills 22, 178, 101…What are they really up to? “First Quebec, then we take over the rest of the country, one step at a time…through bilingualism…” PT, “How to take over a country through bilingualism…” SD. That’s what’s really going on. Wake up, people! High taxes, HST, high government salaries, social engineering – expensive forced bilingual and multicultural policies (only outside Quebec of course), unions controlling just about everything, new programs and more government departments yearly, government empire building, the size and growth of government is out of control!!!
    When was the last time you heard of a politician talk about downsizing, eliminating waste, eliminating debt, cutting back on things…???
    Liberal, Tory same old story, all spin, lies, propaganda, more spin…just sick.

  2. Mr. Akin, you better keep a lot of lip balm for all the kiss a**'n your doing.
    I see Tony Clement tweets telling you what to write.
    Remember when you were a respected journalist instead of a Tory bum boy?

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