I posted before that Michael Ignatieff is the only leader among the Liberal pack to have made regional economic development a major plank in his platform. I was told that Dion also talked about regional economic development but I couldn’t find anything.
The Federal Liberals may have done great things for Canada’s economy over the past 12-13 years – I’ll let others more qualified debate that. But they weren’t very good at regional economic development. New Brunswick’s 14 years straight of net out-migration started the year Jean Cretien came into office.
I know that Libs will blame other factors but the reality is that federal spending on regional economic development as a percentage of the budget has gone steadily downward in the past 13 years.
I’m not being malicious or partisan here. I hope both the Conservatives and the Libs get serious about regional economic development. I hope they fight over who as the best plan for development.
Right now Iggy gets the nod for me.