Conservatives are friends of the GTA?

Today Jim Flaherty once again embarrassed himself in front of Torontonians, as he has done many times before. He used tortured logic to try and accuse Tom Mulcair and the federal NDP of hurting Toronto by opposing the Conservatives’ reckless agenda.

This is, of course, hogwash. The NDP voted against Mr. Flaherty’s latest budget because – among other things - it cut infrastructure and hurt cities like Toronto. Even the Minister himself admitted this at the time, saying in the House of Commons on budget day that for infrastructure, “there is less spending”.

And what about the Conservatives’ NDP voted against it mantra?

Opposition members can vote against the budgetary agenda of the government of the day without opposing every individual line item. For example, when the NDP worked to rewrite the 2005 budget, Conservatives opposed it.

So if Mr. Flaherty wants to continue his bizarre claims about the NDP, we hope he saves just a little bit of ire for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who voted against:

• $1.6 billion for affordable housing construction;
• $1.5-billion increase in transfers to provinces for tuition reduction and better training through EI;
• $900 million for transit, with an additional one cent of the federal gas tax going to public transit;
• $100 million for a pension protection fund for workers.

Voting against transit, affordable housing, tuition reduction and bankruptcy protection for employees – that’s the Conservative record.