Toronto Star provincial politics columnist Martin Reg Cohn returns to the pre-Wynne Liberal party rhetoric of pitting the Ontario horse racing industry against a non-related sector in a column published on Saturday, March 8.
The column discusses Chrysler chief Sergio Marchionne's announcement that the automaker would proceed with minimal upgrades for its Windsor and Brampton plants and has withdrawn its request for government funding, which resulted in political debate.
Cohn questions Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak for supporting funding for the Ontario horse racing industry, which he calls "a relic of the horse and buggy industry."
"If incentives are so bad, why has Hudak attacked the Liberal government for trying to wind down money-losing horse-racing tracks across Ontario?" writes Cohn. "Why would the Tories prop up a relic of the horse and buggy industry while talking down next-generation automobile production?"
Also a generator of economic spinoffs, the Ontario horse racing industry employed 60,000 people and produced annual expenditures of $2 billion prior to the cancellation of the Slots-At-Racetracks Program.
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