Hot fuss

“After months listening to Ontario politicians and the national media crying a river about how Ontario has had to stoop to collecting equalization payments I believe I’ve finally figured out what all the fuss is about.”

So froths one of the frothier corners of the intertubes.

Herewith, a list of twenty Canadian daily newspapers, and the total number of articles, editorials, op-eds, and letters to the editor which they have published in the past twelve months, up to and including today, which contain the words “Ontario” and “equalization” (or, in the case of Le Droit, “péréquation”.

Nineteen of the papers on the list are in Ontario. One is not. Not surprisingly, the two major Toronto dailies, as national and Ontario papers of record, top the list.

The Ontario papers marked with an asterisk serve metropolitan markets which are larger than the one served by the non-Ontario paper.

So, really now: where has more “fuss” been made over Ontario’s status as an equalization-receiving province?

Globe and Mail*                 77
Toronto Star*                   66
The [St. John's] Telegram       33
National Post*                  31
Sault Star                      27
Toronto Sun*                    23
Ottawa Citizen*                 22
Waterloo Record*                22
Guelph Mercury                  21
Le Droit*                       21
Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal   20
Brantford Expositor             20
London Free Press*              16
North Bay Nugget                16
Hamilton Spectator*             15
Kingston Whig-Standard          14
Ottawa Sun*                     14
Belleville Intelligencer        14
Windsor Star*                   13
Chatham Daily News              11