Like a lot of bloggers, columnists, radio talk show hosts, etc. I tend to get fixated on a subject for awhile and then back off. My current target of choice is the CFIB.
The Premier of Ontario goes on a bender last night – a veritable orgy of economic development ‘picking winners’ and I can’t find a single negative comment in any of the Ontario papers from the CFIB. Here’s a few examples:
Setting up the “new Next Generation Jobs Fund, which will create new good, high-paying jobs by developing new clean and green technologies”.
Increase support for the rural economic development fund by 50 per cent.
Increasing funding for festivals and events around Ontario, and expanding marketing initiatives to promote Ontario destinations.
Work with the forestry industry through initiatives like the Forest Sector Prosperity Fund.
Bolster regional economic expansion and jobs in northern Ontario by increasing the Northern Heritage Fund to $100 million, and in eastern Ontario by creating a new Eastern Ontario Development Fund.
Why no outrage from the CFIB in Ontario? Tourism. Forestry, Sustainable Technologies. All ‘picking winners’.
I have an emerging theory that the CFIB was coddled under Bernard Lord and maybe now the bloom is coming off the rose a bit.