The old Reform Party, in its "Blue Book" platform, vowed to eliminate -- sorry, let's pronounce it like Preston Manning, eleeeeminate -- regional development agencies such as the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Western Economic Diversification, FedNOR (for northern Ontario) and so forth. Actually, this is something I personally support -- I think that while paying attention to regional issues the services provided by all of these federal banks could be best rolled into the Business Development Bank of Canada, the BDC.
Yet now, the Conservatives wholeheartedly support the regional development agencies -- in fact, they're seen as plum cabinet posts. Whatever happened to Stephen Harper's contempt for Atlantic Canada, Québec and the "cycle of defeatism"? Oh yeah -- he realized there was a cash cow for the West too. He just decided to screw Atlantic Canadians and Québecois by slashing their equalization payments.
What a ...
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