Jim Watson, the Municipal Affairs Minister of the government of Ontario is an idiot:
“Nortel is the single largest employer in the city . . . and I was disappointed that there wasn’t more of a coordinated effort, really, from all three levels of government — not just the city — to deal with it,” Watson said.
and the irresponsible journalism that comes out of the Ottawa Citizen belongs in the high school newspaper club:
To be fair, the lack of leadership on Nortel is spread among three levels of government, a point Watson makes. The city should have been making enough noise that other levels of government had to respond. The distraction of Mayor Larry O’Brien’s trial on influence-peddling charges could have been a factor in the city’s failure to focus on Nortel.
Only a free-loading parasite would think that governments should play favorites in any industry. In our global economy, only a clueless buffoon would think that governments could have the ability to fight market forces and insulate a firm from international competition. A government official has no excuse.
Back to International Trade 101, my dear Watson.