Toronto Star: Hébert: Stephen Harper in no-win situation on funding for Quebec City arena

[tuvor]

The notion of federal funding for a state-of-the-art hockey arena in Quebec City is a textbook case of desperate politics and bad policy. By flirting aggressively with the idea of forking out tens of millions of public dollars to finance the project, Stephen Harper and his Conservatives have manoeuvred themselves into a lose-lose position.

Consider the following:

If Harper does not commit close to 200 million dollars towards the arena, he will almost certainly lose some or all of his five Quebec-area seats in the next election. That would leave the Conservatives with the remnants of a base in the province and it would be a setback in the drive for a governing majority.

A new arena is a pre-condition for the return of an NHL franchise to the city. Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau – whose interest in buying such a franchise is widely known – also happens to be the driving force behind a new Conservative-friendly television network dubbed Fox News North.

...

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/859158--hebert-stephen-harper-in-no-win-situation-on-funding-for-quebec-city-arena

In January of 2000, Stephen Harper, then president of the National Citizens Coalition, decried a proposed federal tax break for Canadian NHL teams. "Canadians are being forced to subsidize millionaire hockey team owners and that's a misconduct," he said in a news release, calling it "a puck in the face of taxpayers." After the plan was scrapped, Harper was overjoyed, saying, "The taxpayers have scored a goal in overtime."

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/puck+face/3503694/story.html

[Spazito]

1. LOL, I love it...

If he throws tax dollars at the Quebec sports arena, all the other Provinces with arenas will have their hands out as well and his base won't like that one bit for two reasons, one; they despise the 'Frenchies' and two; will see it as a total waste of tax dollars. They are already out there complaining about the possibility.

Here's another article on it with some of the comments from his base:

Harper opens door to federal funds going to build pro sports arenas

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper has flung the doors open to the possibility of federal funding for professional sports stadiums across the country, saying if his government sends money to Quebec City it will do the same for others.

snip

The optics have already spurred heckling from the bleachers, and even from the Conservative home bench.

snip

With stimulus money about to dry up early next year, and the government turning its sights on deficit slashing, the notion of spending borrowed dollars on professional sports arenas strikes some Conservatives as off side.

"If you're going to say to people, sorry there's no funding increases for the national child tax benefit ... or infrastructure, these all become harder messages to deliver if this goes ahead," said one MP, on condition of anonymity.

more

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/harper-opens-door-to-federal-funds-going-to-build-pro-sports-arenas-102574584.html


And, as usual, Doris wasn't informed and said the opposite, no money for sports venues, just two weeks ago. I just love how they are screwing up left, right and center, keep it up Stevie boy!