When she faced reporters for the first time after announcing herself as a Liberal, Marilyn Gladu seemed to hint that, as an MP on the government side of the House, her Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong riding would gain access to government funding that she would not have had while she was a Conservative MP.
“We were the bellwethers for 52 years before I was elected,” Gladu told reporters Friday in Montreal. “So that means they’ve always benefited from government support. And after 10 years and four elections, even my strong supporters from the Conservative Party are saying to me, ‘We like you, you’ve worked hard, but we really need that support, we need affordable housing, we have infrastructure needs.’”
But allegations that Gladu’s candidacy – or that any candidacy not made by government MPs – lacked government support are difficult to prove.
Global News has tracked every spending announcement made by the government since 2011 and, in the current Parliament, has recorded 4,131 spending announcements totaling $20.5 billion that have been allocated to projects in Canada and around the world.
Of those announcements since the 2025 election, there are 19 projects in Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong receiving a total of $26.8 million in federal funding.
The average of the 343 trips was 12 projects worth a combined $30.7 million. So Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong has more federally funded projects than average, although the combined value of all those projects is below average.
Get daily National news
Get Canada’s daily news stories delivered to your inbox so you never miss the day’s top stories.
But what about nominations made by opposition MPs versus nominations made by government MPs? The evidence suggests that, in general, nominations by government MPs do not benefit more from federal funding than nominations by the opposition. Or, in other words, positions held by opposition MPs receive large federal funds for a large number of projects despite the fact that their MPs do not sit on the government benches.
So far in Parliament, support held by Liberal Party MPs or the government has resulted in 1,739 projects being funded worth a total of $7.4 billion. Refugees held by opposition lawmakers have resulted in more projects being funded – 2,178 projects – although the combined value of those projects is about half the value of the government’s fundraising or $3.8 billion.
This data is taken from press releases issued by the government to draw attention to funded projects.
Global News has taken data from these press releases since the 2011 federal election and tracked who received support in each Parliament. The pattern in the current minority Parliament, where a large number of projects and funding flow even though they are not represented by government MPs, appears to have held true in the previous two minority Parliaments.
During the 2011-2019 Parliamentary majority, elections by government MPs collectively generated more funds and more projects were funded compared to elections by opposition MPs. However, by definition, in a Parliamentary majority, the government holds more than half of all elections.
As for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong’s record while Gladu was a member of parliament, it was in the middle position compared to all other officials in the four Parliaments.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.