Reform Party: Part II

[Smallc]

The other bidders were from the University of Western Ontario in London, Trent University in Peterborough and Laval University in Montreal. All but Laval have publicly confirmed they didn't win. That raised fears in some quarters that Ottawa is looking for a way to funnel the project to Quebec, which is home to more than a dozen big pharmaceutical companies.

The vaccine facility was to be the centrepiece of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, a $139-million collaboration between Ottawa and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The manufacturing plant would be built for about $88 million and was to give researchers from around the world a non-profit, single location to manufacture potential HIV vaccines for clinical trials.

ICID's proposal had the backing of four Canadian universities, Winnipeg-based biopharmaceutical giant Cangene Corp., the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York City, and the Serum Institute, the largest generic vaccine manufacturing company in the world. Last summer, ICID was told informally its bid had been judged to be the winner by a group of peer reviewers.

AIDs Facility Won't be Built Here: Ottawa

I really hope Quebec gets the facility. Then, all of these Conservative supporters can see an exact repeat of the mistake they seem to have made more than once.

[nicky10013]

AIDs Facility Won't be Built Here: Ottawa

I really hope Quebec gets the facility. Then, all of these Conservative supporters can see an exact repeat of the mistake they seem to have made more than once.

Something tells me this had something to do with it.

But then former ICID CEO Terry Duguid decided to seek the nomination to run for the Liberal Party in Winnipeg South and things started to go sour. Several sources, including Duguid, say his candidacy for the Liberals was cited a number of times to ICID officials as being an impediment to ICID's bid on the vaccine plant.

These guys are so partisan as to shut down an entire project on the basis that a member of the board is a Liberal is beyond disgusting.

[Smallc]

It seems they're going to (maybe) make it up to us though:

OTTAWA -- The federal government is studying a proposal to build a $300-million expansion of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg for a one-of-a-kind bench-to-bedside research facility in hospital superbugs.

The Level 5 Laboratory Infectious Disease Control Campus would aim to prevent and control hospital-borne bugs, which affect more than 250,000 Canadians each year and result in more than 8,000 deaths.

It would be the only facility of its kind in the world and would help solidify Winnipeg as an international centre for infectious disease research.

A Super-lab to Fight Super Bugs

Still, considering that most HIV research is now done in Winnipeg...and considering the facilities that we have, the HIV lab still should have been put here.

Edited February 6, 2010 by Smallc

[Smallc]

Wow, I didn't realize how much of a repeat this was. From the Free Press article:

The existing National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg is the legacy of another Manitoba regional cabinet minister, Tory Jake Epp, who initiated plans for the lab in 1987 when he was the federal health minister. It was, in part, a consolation prize for the CF-18 fiasco, which saw Manitoba lose an aircraft maintenance contract to Quebec despite having a cheaper and better bid.

[Argus]

Wow, I didn't realize how much of a repeat this was. From the Free Press article:

The history of Canada over the last few decades has come to bear close resemblane to a family with one harrassed parent and ten squabbling, jealous children. Every child insists on having every toy, and the parent does his or her best to dole them out equitably, but the whiny brats always scream whenever one of their siblings gets the newest toy, no matter what they've gotten previously.

I would tend to agree, however, that Quebec has been the favorite - or I should say, the whiniest child with the biggest lungs for most of my life, and so has managed to get more than its share of toys.

[August1991]

Laval University is in Quebec City.

I don't know what to make of this but I find it rather pathetic when people consider that their livelihood and the future of their children depend on decisions made by anonymous bureaucrats and politicians, far away from them. And I somehow doubt that the placement of a $200 million AIDS plant in Manitoba, Ontario or Quebec will give birth to a Reform Party Part II.

The Reform Party and the Bloc Québécois were born in Mulroney's valiant but failed attempt to bring the Quebec government into Canada's constitutional fold (Meech Lake). A Liberal, Pierre Trudeau, scuttled that deal because his vanity would not allow someone else achieving Canadian compromise.

When Harper attempts to have the Quebec government agree to the current Constitution (and Harper will, assuming that he wins a majority), then we can discuss the possibility of a new Reform Party.

Edited February 8, 2010 by August1991

[Smallc]

For the west, the last straw was the F-18 contract. The Conservative party should be careful.

[Smallc]

When Harper attempts to have the Quebec government agree to the current Constitution

Oh, and that would be meaningless symbolism now. It's been a long time, and they were always part of it, agreement or not.