A New Age of Pork

The Age of Tory Pork is over. The Age of Liberal Pork is about to begin:

Today, the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Minister of Small Business and Tourism, along with Francesco Sorbara, Member of Parliament for Vaughan–Woodbridge, announced an investment of up to $837,500 in Cutler Forest Products to increase productivity, expand operations and support job creation. This announcement was made on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for FedDev Ontario.

Cutler Forest Products designs and manufactures ready-to-assemble cabinetry for kitchen, bath and storage solutions, as well as constructing and wholesaling wood products. The FedDev Ontario investment will allow Cutler to acquire state-of-the-art equipment and consolidate its manufacturing services at a single 195,000-square-foot facility in Vaughan, thereby increasing productivity and its capacity to innovate and become more competitive.

This project will support the company's efforts to expand its customer base and the export of its products to the United States. It will also benefit the wood, laminate and veneer supply chains across Canada that provide materials to Cutler.

Our former "conservative" overlords were fond of repaving curling rink parking lots. Such distant halcyon days. If you're running an organization capable of leasing or purchasing 195,000 square feet on the outskirts of Toronto, the sum of $837,500 is a rounding error in your operations account. In fact for that much money you might be able to buy a whole garage in the city of Vaughan. An organization of that size incapable of privately raising so comparatively tiny a sum is an organization on the road to the bankruptcy courts. 

These are obvious facts. It is entirely possible that the Honourable Bardish Chagger - whose private sector experience is thin - might be unaware of these facts. If so she is grossly incompetent. While I would put nothing past a junior minster in a Trudeau cabinet, it seems likely this is an ordinary vote buying exercise. What's impressive is that the next election is nearly four years away. If only the Liberals applied such forward thinking to balancing the budget, defence procedure and health care policy. But that would take valuable time away from handing out large cardboard checks to petty crony capitalists.

Comments

[John Chittick]

Unless she has studied classical liberalism, the young Ms Chagger can be forgiven for confusing the proper role of government with Publishers Clearing House-like presentations of loot for failing enterprises. In her lifetime, governments in Canada have done nothing different. It's a sad thing.

[Jim Whyte]

From the Waterloo Record tongue-bath:

"Articulate and outgoing, the 34-year-old Chagger got her start in politics helping her father. He was grateful to the Liberal government of then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for its liberalized immigration policy and its commitment to minority rights as stated in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"'It was the fact that a chance was given,' she said. 'In today's day and age, these guys would never have gotten into the country. They feel they owe something, not only to the nation, but to the Liberal party.'"

Sorry, what? Do I understand her to be saying Sikh immigration was banned by Conservative governments?

Talk about "ready-to-assemble cabinetry" -- she's Cabinet material? The woman's an idiot.