Which half?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper just said in the Commons that "almost half" of the stimulus money had gone to opposition-held ridings in Canada, which proves how magnanimous Conservatives are.

One wee problem: the Opposition hold the seats in more than half of Canada, much of those ridings being in highly urban places such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. So when you look at it that way, "almost half" is sort of a strange boast, isn't it? It means that more than 50 per cent of it went to Conservative ridings, correct?

Comments

[Gabe]

By the time journalists are done digging, Harper may wish he had just revealed the numbers he undoubtedly has on the specifics of the stimulus spending.

[geo]

EIGHTY percent,I would say is an issue,SEVENTY percent I would say is an issue,57% an issue? I don't think so, get a grip.
This is the party running the government.They should have an edge.
If you don't like it..get another government to run Canada.....sheesh!

[Catherine]

"They should have an edge?" "Sheesh!" for sure.

Taxpayers are on the hook for these Harper 'pat themselves on the back' photo-ops.

And by the size of the financial deficit they are running, the Harper party equals that with a moral deficit.

[Donald bruce Smith]

It is interesting to see how various Liberals and media outlets manipulate the numbers in order to create a false impression of how the money is being allocated.

From a more recent release by two Liberal friendly news outlets, illustrate this point extremely well.

"57 per cent of the stimulus projects with more than $1 million in federal funding countrywide went to Conservative ridings. The party holds only 46 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons."

This was used a “proof” of Conservative misdeeds and shows that one can create an image of wrongdoing by excluding some numbers.

As an example, let us assume that a Liberal riding can have 15 projects all under $1,000,000.00 dollars, ongoing or projected and let us say for being simple for the Liberals out there, that each one of those projects costs $500,000.00 dollars. (15 X 500,000.00 = $7,500,000.00.)

Therefore, a Conservative riding could get one project at $1,000,000.00 and the Liberal riding might have received 15 projects and would get $7,500,000.00 or $6,500,000 more than the Conservatives would and most importantly, that money would not be in the calculation used by the Liberals.

The best example of this is to go to the Toronto region on the websites and review all the 500 projects currently under way or planned, it tells a far different tale then what has been spun by the Liberals.

The other factor not in the calculations, such as they are, is that they fail to take in account the geographic area of Canada and what impact that will have on the allocation of the stimulus money, all one needs to do is to go to elections Canada’s website for the map of Canada seat distribution.

The Liberals currently hold 77 seats with 5 seats in Vancouver, 32 seats in the GTA and 13 seats in Montreal or 50 seats that have a geographic sq mileage of less than 2,500 sq miles combined in just three municipal areas. These three municipalities are all in areas of the country where there is currently a sitting Liberal provincial Government, now review what is the principle rule for projects, that there be participation by all three levels of Government.

Vancouver NDP municipal Provincial Liberal, Toronto NDP/ Liberal municipal Liberal Provincial and Montreal? Municipal Provincial Liberal, how would it be possible for the Conservatives to manipulate these other two levels of Government as all three are equal partners in the projects.

Now measure the three cities 2,500 square miles against Canada`s 3,512,524 square miles, throw in all the other thousands of municipal areas. Now review all the projects, not just selected ones and see what you come up with, I am sure it will look far different then what has been put forward as there is a whole lot of Canada out there that is not represented by the Liberals...

In closing, it is not the numbers that they are using, it is the fact that the Liberals are excluding a large number of projects from their analyst and reports that they are bring to the people of Canada, and that is a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth...

[Darwin O'Connor]

This story about "Liberals and media outlets". It's about the Prime Minister himself saying that the more then half the of stimulus went to Conservative ridings. Hopefully he has access to better data and analysis then the Liberals, but he has refused to release it.

[George Pengilley]

In todays Star Kennedy is crying about Toronto. Clement said he worked with the Provincial Liberals as to where the money would go. Sounds simple to me - Dalton felt that the money going to Toronto was enough.
One added point, when Toronto smartens up and elects MP from the party that is the govt., they may get a little more - Tough suck it up. You got Miller remember.

[Darwin O'Connor]

"One added point, when Toronto smartens up and elects MP from the party that is the govt., they may get a little more - Tough suck it up. "

The idea that a region or individual should be punished or rewarded for how they votes is an affront to democracy.

[Donald bruce Smith]

The best example of Globe and Mail report this is to go to the City of Toronto, which is one municipality with 23 ridings and review all the projects currently under way or planned and not just the one segment that the Globe used

Then compare how the various Liberal members from the 23 Toronto ridings are doing when you compare their stimulus monies to Conservatives riding by using compatible data...

We will use Garrard Kennedy, as he has been the most vocal - Parkdale Park Dale, area 16 Sq Klms and is only a small fraction of the municipality of Metro Toronto or 1/23 of all the ridings.

Now compare this to the riding that is represented by Mr. Clements riding.

In 2003, it was given its current boundaries as described below, containing 11 municipalities with 32 towns over 14,402 Square Klms, which is a typical Ontario Riding for the Conservatives, where as the Liberals are all mostly contained in the GTA.

1) Parry Sound, 2) Muskoka, 3) Ballantyne, 4) Wilkes, 5) Pentland, 6) Boyd, 7) Paxton, 8) Biggar, 9) Osler, 10) Lister, 11) Butt, 12) Devine, 13) Bishop, 14) Freswick, 15) McCraney, 16) Hunter, 17) McLaughlin, 18) Bower, 19) Finlayson, 20) Peck, 21) Canisbay, 22) Sproule, 23) Georgian Bay Islands National Park, 24) Ballantyne, 25) 26) Boulter, 27) Lauder, 28) Boyd, 29) Lister, 30) Freswick, 31) Bower, 32) Sproule.

This disparity is not covered by the Globe and Mail calculations, as they fail to take in account the geographic area of Ontario and what impact that will have on the allocation of the stimulus money, all one needs to do is to go to elections Canada’s website for the map of Canada seat distribution.

Now I do not know, if there are any Liberals out there who take the time to travel outside of the GTA, but in my travels over the past 20 years, camping, soccer and just plain old road trips.

I have found that when you get to a small town, there will be Hockey rink near by and if you look at Mr. Clements riding, there are a lot of Rinks, far more then what you would see in Mr. Kennedy`s riding.

Now if you wish to quote the numbers, get to all the numbers and not just some of them.