Katy Austin : New Democrats

Stephen Harper and his Conservative government have shown so often this year who their friends are and whom they favour. 

They allowed a contract to build vehicles for the Canadian armed forces to go to an American plant instead of insisting that the company alter its Canadian plant and provide jobs for Canadian workers.  

They refused to give a grant to a Montreal gay arts festival (even though the festival met all the requirements) after flack within the party over a grant to Toronto’s Pride Week events.

They refuse to interfere in the sale of valuable Nortel assets to a Scandinavian firm when Waterloo’s Research in Motion wants to keep these assets in Canadian hands and thus keep Canada’s top brains here.

Finally, Simcoe Grey’s own Conservative MP, Helena Guergis, was only too pleased to present a recreational infrastructure stimulus cheque to a Collingwood private school for an artificial turf soccer field.  This is public money going to an institution for children of the rich elite; out of the 767 recreational infrastructure projects approved in Ontario, this was the only one given to a private school.  Meanwhile, the Town of Collingwood did not receive the funding it sought for a roof over the public skating rink.           

We expect better.  We expect a government that is interested in helping ordinary Canadians, not the elite.  

Katy Austin,
President, Simcoe Grey New Democrats

Categories: Katy's Letters to the Editor
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