Who ya gonna believe, me or those lying integers?

Once upon a time, in a more golden age:

The Harper government rode to power roughly two years ago in the wake of the sponsorship scandal, which revealed that a program designed to promote federalism in Quebec funnelled cash to advertising and communications firms connected with the Liberal party. In their campaign platform, Harper's Conservatives vowed to end "old-style politics" and "replace a culture of entitlement and corruption with a culture of accountability."

Yeaahhhh. And how's that working out, Prime Minister Doughboy? Uh oh ...

Tory ridings in Quebec getting more handouts
Andrew Mayeda , Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, March 09, 2008

OTTAWA -- The Harper government has been channelling a disproportionate amount of economic development money in Quebec into Conservative-held ridings, a Canwest News Service analysis has found...

Since Feb. 6, 2006, when the minority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper took power, through the end of September 2007, the agency has funded more than 1,200 projects worth nearly half a billion dollars.

During most of that period, the Conservatives held 10 of the 75 federal seats in Quebec, giving them a 13.3 per cent share. However, projects in Conservative ridings received 22 per cent of the agency's funding, according to an analysis of the agency's publicly disclosed funding figures and Elections Canada riding data.

And being the staunch guardians of the public purse that they are, I'm sure the Blogging Tories are all over this outrageous fiscal inequity, right? Right? OK, maybe not so much.

Oh, wait, there's Jarrett Plonka, locked onto this story. I'll bet he's pissed, yes?

Looking for trends where trends do not exist

I'm not yet convinced that regional grants in Quebec are being given based on the partisanship of Tory ridings, as this article would have us believe.

Well, it's Monday, it's early, I guess it's always coffee before fiscal outrage. We'll check back later.