Gerard Kennedy shines

Here's a substantive passage from a piece that is generally down on the Liberals. And it's a good point:

Gerard Kennedy, the infrastructure critic (and, dear God, the fifth Liberal to rise), suggested the Conservatives have been guilty of pork-barreling when it comes to spending stimulus money.

Of the top 10 ridings in Ontario receiving infrastructure funds, four are represented by cabinet ministers, including John Baird, the Minister of Transport, and a fifth by the Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary.

"How does the Prime Minister explain to the 408,000 Canadian families who became unemployed since last fall that his cabinet is too busy trying to buy votes to create the jobs that are needed?" he asked.

The government didn't deny the allegation, with Tony Clement, the Industry Minister, merely offering up the weak excuse that funding decisions are made with other levels of government.

It was unfortunate for Mr. Clement that he had to rise in the place of the absent Mr. Baird because it allowed Mr. Kennedy to point out that the Industry Minister's Parry Sound-Muskoka riding will benefit from 28 projects, five times the national average.

Mr. Kennedy also pointed out that three Conservative MPs, including Mr. Baird and government whip Gordon O'Connor, from the Ottawa area, where unemployment is half that of the rest of Ontario, will receive two to four times as much money for infrastructure stimulus as the average Ontario riding.

"[Jim] Flaherty [the Finance Minister] said that the money would be targeted toward communities most in need," Mr. Kennedy said in an interview. "This is a breach of trust."

He too has a point. He has argued for months that infrastructure money would have flowed much more quickly if it had been funneled through the system Ottawa uses to transfer its gas tax receipts to municipalities. The problem with this mechanism from the federal government's point of view is that they would not have been able to cherry-pick projects for their own political benefit.

This is an area of legitimate criticism -- the Opposition can argue with some conviction that the government has placed its own partisan interests ahead of the country's economic recovery.

Throw in the very real likelihood that millions of dollars have been spent on projects of dubious worth -- rumours are already emerging of a private school in the Collingwood, Ont., area that has received funding for a new sports field -- and the Liberals have the makings of a "waste, corruption and mismanagement" scandal of their very own.

Full story here: http://www.nationalpost.com/m/blog.html?b=fullcomment&e=john-ivison-liberals-miss-their-chance-to-roast-tory-pork-barrelers&s=Home
James Morton
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