Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 18, 2010
G8 funds flood Clement’s riding: Liberals
The Opposition Liberals are accusing the Conservative government of blowing $50 million of G8 summit-related spending in Industry Minister Tony Clement’s riding in an attempt to boost his chances of re-election.
Industry Minister Tony Clement has been under fire for weeks in the House of Commons over federal spending in his central Ontario riding of Muskoka-Parry Sound ahead of the G8 summit in Huntsville.
Liberal MPs Mark Holland and Marcel Proulx presented a slideshow at a news conference on Wednesday showing G8 legacy project sites in Clement’s Ontario riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka.
Dubbing the presentation the “Tour de Pork,” the MPs said most of the money has been spent on projects that are nowhere near delegates during the one-day G8 summit and that will not be completed in time for the event.
The sites flaunted by the Liberals include a $2-million street improvement project for Port Severn, 135 kilometres away from the summit site in Huntsville, as well as a $700,000 main street and bridge improvement project in the small town of Kearney, 42 kilometres from the summit site
The minister, Holland said, needs to justify how he can say the projects have anything to do with the G8, when most of them will never be seen by delegates.
“What has happened here is under the guise of G8,” Holland told reporters. “It has nothing to do with G8. They’re blowing $50 million to boost the electoral prospects of a minister, and we think that that is entirely inappropriate.” (Source: CBC News)