Michael Temelini (I)

“On the other hand, if Rideout did try to squeeze out more money, outside of the normal transparent process, maybe this is a victory for those who are opposed to pork-barrel politics.”

So says Our Dear Political Scientician, Michael Temelini, on the CBC.

Question: who, pray tell, are “those who are opposed to pork-barrel politics”?

A hint as to a possible answer: “Those” aren’t WilliamsGovernment.

This cleverly colour-coded graph shows this year’s Provincial Road Improvement Program funding announcements. Red columns are the sacrificial districts. Light blue are Conservative backbenchers; dark blue, cabinet ministers — at least at the time of the announcement.



Note: The figure for Baie Verte-Springdale is the as-announced $3.5-million that precipitated Tom Rideout’s departure. The figures for Gander and Bonavista North are arbitrarily set as $2-million, since The Most Open And Accountable Government In The Universe combined the two into one $4-million announcement rather than breaking the two figures out.

Cf. individual longitudinal graphs for Humber Valley, Isles of Notre Dame, Bay of Islands, Carbonear-Harbour Grace and Grand Bank, Burgeo-La Poile and Ferryland, Fortune Bay, and Labrador West.

And, especially, cf. similarly colour-coded graphs for previous years. A careful comparison of this year’s graph and previous years’ yields a most interesting phenomenon. There are two well-defined “plateaus” at that $2-million and $2.5-million announced-per-district levels.

What’s up with that?

That’s a question some enterprising political scienticians ought to look into.

It would certainly be a more fruitful exercise, in light of recent practice, than searching for “those who are opposed to pork-barrel politics”, whoever they are.