Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
The $2.5M figure sounds like it was pulled out of a hat.
At any rate, the speculation is that none of this matters since the plan was to put it in Calgary all along, with the bid process simply being a pretext.
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I don't think it's quite so straightforward. The Tory government can also use this whole exercise to "teach Ottawa a lesson about being entrepreneurial". There is a wide-ranging consensus across Canada that an institution like this should be in the Nation's capital. If the City of Ottawa makes a strong pitch, totally outside of the NCC, then it demonstrates to the nation (1) that we take our role as national capital very seriously, (2) that we don't need a federal nanny agency to produce an appropriately symbolic city for the nation, and (3) that we know how to put together complex multi-use projects that will also fulfill other urban objectives. The Feds and the city can win, win, win with a good Ottawa bid.
The dangerous game the Tories would be playing by giving this to Calgary is that they would make other major cities unnecessarily unhappy, since the nation's capital is the uncontroversial location for national institutions. Calgary wins, then Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton (especially those three) will be very pissed off and/or lining up for "the next one" which may or may not ever come their way and would drain more money from federal coffers than necessary.
Plus, if the Tories want to build a base in Toronto and Vancouver, getting those cities to work themselves up into a costly and losing bid, and seeing the results be so evidently political (the PM's home city getting the goodies) would not be the best way to achieve support for the next election. Edmonton, as Calgary's Lex Luther, could be tempted to chink a dent into the Tory armour by re-electing an Anne McLellan, for instance...