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Almost 120 million tax dollar has been spent over the last while, with the stated objective of dominating the just concluded Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Was this a good investment?
Well Canadian Athletes certainly won a lot of Gold medals. The spin I like was that in typical canadian fashion we are telling folks that owning the whole podium would be greedy. We just wanted to own the little spot in the middle (tee hee).
However, I have to wonder about the value of spending that amount of money on 200 odd professional or at least semi-professional athletes.
This is driven home by, of all things, an ad from a major canadian corporation, Canadian Tire. Surely everyone has seen the spot where a young boy enters a coffee shop, asking about the help wanted poster in the window.
The shop owner says he was looking for someone a little older, and shouldn’t the youthful job applicant be “Playing Hockey?”
The youngster replies “That’s what I’m trying to do!”
Many of my left leaning friends have expressed a degree of outrage that the Harperites might not be continuing to finance “Own the Podium” and in my opinion this is misplaced anger. Rage instead that the city of Toronto is closing dozens of pools, all in poor areas of the city. (The wealthy areas had the wherewithal to fundraise and the political clout to cow politicians, so their pools will remain open).
Rage that our national sport, hockey, is beyond the reach of the poor kids who love the game but can’t afford the equipment and ice time.
Rage that everyday kids can’t afford to play.
If we were to invest that money, (and much more!) into children’s athletics we would reap huge dividends in the future. Healthier kids mean healthier adults, which means less stress on out Health Care System in the future. It means kids playing sports and joining teams instead of gangs. It means a much broader base of young athletes who have developed their talents, and can provide a much better base of future Olympians.
Never mind “own the Podium”. Lets own the playing fields.
There was another similar commercial; a soccer commercial where a young boy is following a moving line until they hit the sideline of a soccer field.
I have a problem with ongoing spending with Own the Podium: not only because of pros and semi-pros, but how about those who get these corporate sponsors? Do they honestly need gov’t assistance? I think not.
I find it obscene that Harpercons talk hackey slashey everywhere else, much needed and necessary programs for everyday Canadians who don’t skate and shoot pucks for a living but they would keep Owe The Podium.
Funny, before the hockey final, Gary Lunn, Minister of sport was talking about cutting funding to this program after these olympics.
Then, why would St-Stevie cut funding to something that helped boost his ‘olympic bounce’ numbers?
Here in Montréal, the hockey arena in Villeray (on de Normanville, between Jarry and Jean-Talon) was closed – and I believe demolished – because the city lacked funds to repair and renovate the rink.
It is deeply shameful to close down public and community exercise and sport facilities and restrict exercise to those who can afford private clubs, then moan about “child obesity” or the “obesity crisis” in general.