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opinion

The political weather forecast for summer and fall across Canada from Tofino to Torbay calls for rain, rain and more rain – rain in the form of intermittent showers and occasional deluges of promises for federal infrastructure projects.

The rain will be especially heavy in ridings held by the incumbent Conservative government, but umbrellas will also be required in ridings and areas the government hopes to capture.

The pre-election rainy season is a staple of Canadian politics. Liberal governments going back into the mists of time opened the floodgates before and between elections, showering money on ridings they held.

At one point, under a Liberal government program, the only two ridings the party held west of Ontario (both in Winnipeg) received more than half of the money for all of Western Canada. Quebec before elections was plastered with signs highlighting federal largesse.

This showering of federal money was systematically condemned by the Progressive Conservatives as outrageously partisan and wasteful examples of disrespect for taxpayers' money. That is, until the PCs got their hands on the federal spigot.

The old Reform Party, now morphed into the Conservative Party, was especially censorious about the showering of money under the Jean Chrétien Liberals. Now, however, the Conservatives are the rainmakers, and they are seeding the clouds across the country.

It's all part of the party's attempt to persuade as many of us as possible to vote Conservative – an attempt that includes saturation television advertising with some party money but more funds coming from "hard-working taxpayers" (the party's favourite phrase) and government cheques that will soon be arriving in the mail for families with children, among other strategies.

The Conservatives have set up so many infrastructure funds to spray money across Canada that taxpayers can be forgiven if keeping them straight is next to impossible. But the Conservatives reckon correctly that voters who care about such things don't mind which fund sprays money, as long as dollars arrive.

The infrastructure money drizzles from many sources, into the smallest hamlets, always exclusively announced by the appropriate Conservative minister and MP even when the money sluices into a constituency occupied by an opposition party MP.

A favourite source, among money, is the additional $5.8-billion announced in the fall, 2014, "to support Canadian heritage, First Nations education, defence, borders, research, small-craft harbours, transportation and search and rescue."

As the definition implies, money is available for just about anything, although $551-million was set aside for Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard, with $288-million of that for harbour improvements and small craft harbours.

Governments love programs for small craft harbours. No harbour is too small to qualify. Take a province such as New Brunswick, for example, with its fishing communities. In 2014 and 2015, 39 harbours will receive money, right down to tiny St. Martins Harbour with 12 fishing vessels and $1-million landings of lobster and scallop.

The $5.8-billion fund is not to be confused with the Public Transit Fund announced in the 2015 federal budget, the $14-billion New Building Canada Fund, the $150-million Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund that has been superseded by the recently announced Canada 150 Fund for community centres and hockey arenas.

This latest fund, announced by the Prime Minister on May 15 has "hurry up" written all over it. Municipalities were given three-to-four weeks to submit applications, so that the government ministers and MPs could announce projects before and during the election campaign. Think of the political possibilities, given that the Prime Minister thought the fund could renovate up to 1,800 community facilities.

If the previous Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund offers any guide, this new money will be raining disproportionately on Conservative ridings. As The Globe and Mail reported June 29, the average Conservative riding received 48 per cent more money from that fund than ridings with opposition MPs. With the election campaign well under way, chances are excellent that we can expect heavy showers for Conservative ridings and dry spells, even droughts, for those held by opponents.

Do these political showers of money, and promises of more to come, influence voters? Liberals in power certainly thought so, as did Progressive Conservatives. Obviously, the Harper Conservatives are no different than their predecessors in what they think works.

Since every party promises rain today and rain tomorrow before every election, it's not evident voters care. And gratitude is among the least reliable guides to political behaviour.

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