Mel Arnold wants to have his cake and eat it at the same time. He doesn’t like the increased federal spending in the budget, but he wants to get our share for the riding. Perhaps he has forgotten what the Conservatives did with a similar fund:
“Ridings that elected Conservative members of Parliament in 2011 received, on average, 48 per cent more money from the $150-million Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund than ridings that elected opposition MPs,
Some of the most-funded ridings in each region are held by cabinet ministers,... and the Conservatives had proposed a new program with nearly identical terms.
Along with almost every one of those projects came a government announcement, where MPs had the opportunity to hand out big cheques to community leaders and get favourable coverage in local media… and some opposition MPs reported that they were not invited to funding announcements in their own ridings.”
Since the Liberals have already retreated from their campaign promises to be different from the Conservatives, why should this particular issue be any different? Wouldn’t that be fair?
Second, if Mel thinks that the program is wrong, why is he in such a hurry to be part of it? His conduct resembles being opposed to prostitution but patronizing the local bawdy house.
Richard Smiley