Ditching Alberta’s Expo bid is a costly political mistake
by Paul Marck
Harper’s Tories can kiss their fortunes goodbye
By Paul Marck
So long, Rona Ambrose. See ya later, Laurie Hawn. Sayonara, James Rajotte. Been nice knowing you, Tim Uppal, Brent Rathgeber, Peter Goldring, Mike Lake, and maybe Rob Merrifield. Your leader, Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, has just made you collateral damage in next spring’s federal election, courtesy of the government’s cowardly decision not to back the Edmonton Expo 2017 bid.
Forget the smokescreen of official excuses — that the $700 million “ask” in federal support would be usurped by astronomical security costs. Nobody should buy that truckload of manure. True, the feds ran up security costs at last summer’s G8 and G20 meetings in Toronto to $1 billion due to mismanagement and poor planning. Other jurisdictions do this for less than half the price Canada paid by dawdling so long on offering to stage the global financial summit that costs spiraled out of control. You can thank the ditherer Harper for that costly miscue.
Yet, there is not one shred of evidence offered by the feds over alleged high security costs of the Expo bid, other than the example of its own clumsy, fumbling ineptitude. Claims that the country needs to focus on eliminating the deficit by 2015 and can’t afford to support Expo are spurious at best. Most of the federal support would come after 2015 and Alberta would write the cheques in the meantime. And it stretches credulity to compare the once-in-a-lifetime support for Expo to financing an arena bid for Quebec City’s aspirations to rejoin the NHL. Which, by the way, was another Harper miscue, when he blurted out last summer that of course Ottawa would support the Quebec arena bid. He backpedaled real quick after his financial mandarins told him about the long lineup of Canadian cities who want money for arenas and covered stadiums.
It is one thing to not commit the government to funding a string of expensive capital projects like arenas. It is quite another to kick in the gut of a city and province’s aspirations to shine on the world stage, drawing tourists and economic development opportunities on the grand scale of a world’s fair. We have seen the benefits to entire regions and provinces that have been generated by Expo 67, Expo 86, Calgary’s 1988 Winter Olympics and this year’s spectacular Vancouver Olympics.
David Emerson, who was the feds’ point man on the Vancouver Olympics and performed a similar job for the B.C. government with Expo 86, told Alberta Venture last summer of the economic importance to a city and province in staging a big, one-time celebration. “If you can do things right, there is tremendous opportunity to brand the image of your community, your province and your city and that can only carry over into all kinds of advantages to you,” said Emerson, who is currently heading up Premier Ed Stelmach’s Council for Economic Strategy. “It can attract business, it can attract tourism and it can put you on the map in so many ways.”
So Mr. Harper, thanks for practicing the politics of shame. When you and your colleagues are on the outside looking in, remember the hubris that got you there.
Full disclosure: Ruth Kelly, publisher of Alberta Venture, is a member of the organizing committee for the Edmonton Expo 2017 bid.
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