Friday, December 19, 2008

Top to bottom

With so many glaring examples of high-ranking Cons misrepresenting the most important facts facing Canada, it's easy enough to lose track of just how far the dishonesty goes. So let's note one seemingly remarkable example of Con MP Mark Warawa doing at the local level what Harper, Flaherty et al. have been doing nationally.

Here's Jordan Bateman at Langley Politics:
Langley MP Mark Warawa has apparently told The Aldergrove Star that the Township never asked him for federal money for the Events Centre.

I can assure you we have asked the federal government (many, many times and in many, many forms) for funding for the Langley Events Centre, and the Township's materials will back that up conclusively.

Over the past two years, there were many meetings and letters with Warawa and other Tory officials--both before and after construction started...

If we weren't asking for money, why did the senior Tory senator from British Columbia tell the mayor-elect on Dec. 1 that no funding would be forthcoming? How would he have known we wanted it?...

I'm sure every MP wishes they could fund every project in their riding, but it's just not possible. But claiming we never asked? Or that there is only one program (which, according to his own timeline, didn't come into existence until after the building was under way) for federal dollars to flow into something like this? Come on.

In fact, I was just reading today that Winnipeg's new stadium will get $15 million in federal money--and NOT from Building Canada (see the bottom paragraph of this story). Where there is a will, Mr. Warawa, there is a way. If you couldn't get the money out of Ottawa, just come out and say it.
Now, there may be one key difference between Warawa's response and the Cons' usual communications strategy. Unlike his party's higher-ups, Warawa isn't in a position to control access to the documentation which can prove him wrong. And it's good to see that Jordan seems eager to get the correct information into the public eye.

But then, Warawa's claim - in effect that a municipality chose to avoid having the federal government fund an infrastructure project, rather than having its request denied due to ineffective MP representation - is one which should be easily dismissed by anybody who puts even a modicum of thought into the matter.

Which points to the Cons' common strategy of lashing out against accurate criticism with no regard for truth or even plausibility, with the sole goal of offering up somebody else to blame for their own failings. And if the problem is indeed just as glaring at the local MP level as it is within the party's inner circle, then merely removing Harper at the top doesn't figure to solve much.

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