The Sixth Estate

On May 26, 2011, Quebec Conservative MP Christian Paradis began to assert himself in his new role as the federal Industry Minister in the most decisive way possible: he announced $4 million in funding for economic development in his own riding. It’s a relatively small announcement, and Community Futures grants are actually quite standard fare, not just in Québec. But still, the fact that Paradis’s first announcements as minister were money for his own riding is prompting me to announce a new project here at Sixth Estate: the Pork Barrel project, which can now be accessed on the top bar of this website.

I subscribe to the government’s RSS newsfeed, and I’m going to track new funding announcements over the next year to see where they go. I am, of course, prepared to be happily surprised if and when it turns out that funding is spread equitably around the country. But here’s what I expect to find: (more…)