Did “Cheque Republic” campaign backfire on federal Liberals?
Today I came across a website affiliated with the federal Liberals at http://www.chequerepublic.ca
I haven’t seen the website before today, but it is loaded with Conservative MPs posing with cheques for their ridings complete with Conservative logos and personal signatures from the local MP. Obviously I see what the scandal is. Conservatives are handing out taxpayer money as if it comes from the party and not Canadians. Fair enough.
Under “Get the Facts” some of the messages
- “Last month, MP Gerard Kennedy led a Liberal investigation that found a disproportionate share of infrastructure stimulus funding was going to Conservative ridings.”
- “Investigative journalists at those newspapers found that nationwide 57 percent of all projects with more than $1-million in federal funding went to Conservative ridings. The investigation also found that Tory ridings landed 66 per cent of all projects so far announced under the Harper government’s Recreation Infrastructure Canada program (RinC). The investigation concludes that if you live in a Conservative riding, you’re receiving 23 percent more infrastructure stimulus funding than you would if project funding was distributed equally among all Canadian ridings.”
An entry in the Blog section of the website
- “Harper slush fund favours Conservative Northern Ontario ridings”
There is also an opportunity to cut a cheque to your friends from Stephen Harper and have it emailed to them (see photo above) explaining the issue to others.
I really do not know if Canada’s Economic Stimulus Package has been handed out on partisan grounds disproportionately to Conservative ridings. I really do not like pork barrel politics and free spending for partisan purposes. I do not know if these allegations are true. But let us assume for a second that these allegations are true. What does it mean for voters? Currently my riding is blue in Newmarket-Aurora. Assuming what the Liberals are saying is true, what incentive would I have to vote for the opposition so that Newmarket gets short changed like the other opposition held ridings as Liberals claim? By drawing so much attention to this “Cheque Republic” issue, are Liberals not encouraging opposition ridings to vote Conservative in order to get some pork for themselves? Could this partially explain rising poll numbers and the recent by-election results? Do Liberals really think Conservative held ridings are going to vote Liberal because their riding received an unfair proportion of stimulus money? From the Liberal point of view does it really benefit them to highlight this issue? Looking at current poll numbers and pundits calling for a Conservative majority in recent days, one has to wonder if areas like Atlantic Canada, Toronto, Northern Ontario and Montreal will be tempted to get on board the gravy train as well following the next election. If these allegations are true I will not try and justify them. Having said that, Liberals really need to think hard about if this campaign helps them politically or not. Perhaps it is something to think about when trying to explain the upset in Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Riviere-du-Loup.
Personally I am not sure if these allegations are true or not, but I am sure that the Cheque Republic backfired and Monday night was evidence of that. Perhaps the Liberal war room should go back to the drawing board and find something else to attack the Conservative government on.
