Thursday, August 23, 2007

Jim Bradley and the case of the "Secret Arena Funds."

An Aug.2, 2007 headline in SooToday read: "Minister of Tourism Jim Bradley is suffering from a bad case of arena envy and doesn't want his constituents to find out." Reporter Carol Martin quoted Jim Bradley, after touring Sault. St. Marie's recently built Steelback Centre saying: "...I don't think I'm going to tell anyone about it when I get back home to St. Catharines, because people there are going to want to know why we don't have one of those at home." Unbelievable!
Yes, this is the same, the one-and-only Liberal Tourism Minister Jim Bradley, whose own ministry gave $3.7 million to build that arena. (And whose leader, Dalton McGuinty, for good measure (and for some good votes), added another $1 million, a total subsidy of $4.7 million.)
This is the same Liberal Jim who, in his riding of St. Catharines, contributed no money whatsoever to his own city's arena as it was being built! And now a smug Bradley wants to keep it a secret from his constituents that his Grits have recently spent multi-millions subsidizing arenas everywhere else but in St. Catharines?
So, do tell us, Jim, why "we don't have one of those at home"? Is it because your Liberal party simply takes St. Catharines voters for granted? Is it because after 30 years, your Grits can safely say, 'who needs St. Catharines, it's no priority for us - they'll happily vote for Jim even though he does nothing for them'?
If ever there was a place and a time for proverbial change, it is here in St. Catharines, and it will be this election.
We need a renewal, not the tired and ineffectual promises of yesterday.

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