Trudeau tour. Cheque handouts. Bloomberg firing.  August 6th 2024

Federal funds help Liberal incumbents introduce themselves to new constituencies

Whenever the House of Commons is not sitting -- like right now -- one of the main functions of government MPs is to hand out federal grants and loans. When those grants and loans are being given to organizations or businesses in a riding that is not represented by a government MP, the cheque handout job usually goes to a cabinet minister -- either the minister in charge of the department handing out the money or a regional minister. Case in point: The Liberals' regional minister for Manitoba and Saskatchewan is Winnipeg MP and Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal who, last week, visited Saskatoon to hand out $36 million to build homes in that province -- a province where every seat is held by the Conservatives. This practice - that backbench MPs generally only get to make a funding announcements when the funds are going to be spent in their own riding has been consistent through the tens of thousands of spending announcements I have logged in my "OttawaSpends" database going back to the 40th Parliament, when the Harper Conservatives had a minority from 2008-2011.

But that template -- of only sending cabinet ministers into 'enemy territory' with cheques is now being broken by the Trudeau government with at least two Liberal backbench MPs recently handing out cheques to organizations in ridings the government does not hold. Last week, Liberal MP Marc Serré was in the community of Gore Bay, ON to hand out nearly a $1 million of federal funds to an organization that helps female entrepreneurs. On July 26, Liberal MP Terry Sheehan was in Wawa, ON to hand out nearly a million dollars in federal funds to hire economic development officers in the communities of Dubreuilville, Wawa, and Hornepayne as well as a forestry technician at Michipicoten First Nation.

All those communities -- Wawa, Gore Bay, etc. -- are in the riding of Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, currently held by New Democrat Carol Hughes. But in the next election, Hughes' riding is disappearing with parts of it carved up and tacked on to new ridings in northern Ontario. (Hughes, herself, is retiring). Wawa, where Sheehan was, is in the riding of Sault Ste. Marie-Algoma and, lo and behold, Sheehan will be the Liberal candidate in that new riding and is spending the summer introducing himself to his prospective new voters. Handy to have a $1 million to hand out by way of introduction. Sheehan's funding announcement generated local headlines -- see below -- whereas a campaigning local politician showing up with no cash is hardly going to generate much media interest.

Same thing with Serré in Gore Bay where he, too, can introduce himself with $1 million handout - and generate some local headlines (see below).

A reminder that we track each and every one of these spending announcements via my X/OttawaSpends project.. So far in this 44th Parliament, we have logged just shy of 18,000 spending announcements in which a combined $84 billion has been handed out. -DA