Duceppe calls Smith's spending comments 'stupid'
Quebec Conservative candidate Larry Smith's comment that it's normal for more money to be spent on Tory ridings has gotten a stiff response from the Bloc and a lukewarm one from his boss, Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper.
Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe called it a "completely stupid" comment.
"If you look at what per capita people in Montreal receive, with nobody from the Tories, and compare that with per capita in Quebec City … it's almost exactly the same," Duceppe said on Friday.
"I give as an example in my riding — there's the Montreal Harbour, CBC/Radio-Canada and the Jacques Cartier bridge, and I won't claim it's because of me."
Smith is running in Lac-Saint-Louis, which is considered one of the Liberal strongholds in Montreal.
"If you look across the country where the Conservatives have had strong representation, a lot of projects have taken place," said Smith, a former Canadian Football League commissioner who was appointed by Harper to the Senate in December, but resigned to run for a seat in the House of Commons.
"But it's normal that you're going to focus on the areas with the people that do support you. That is part of political life."
When questioned at the launch of the party's election platform in Mississauga, Ont., Harper said Tories have a good record of delivering programs all across Quebec, in Conservative and non-Conservative ridings.
"But the reality is this, all these projects were delivered by Conservative members of Parliament even in their own ridings because the other parties voted against those programs," said Harper.
"I think all ridings would be better served to have a Conservative MP in office working with us to best identify the projects in their ridings."
