Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff again reiterated his full support for the Own the Podium program after Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday refused to reverse his government\u2019s ill-advised decision to cut its funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada\u2019s athletes had a remarkable Olympics, leading the way with more gold than any country ever,\u201d said Mr. Ignatieff. \u201cAfter the success we\u2019ve had, Canadians agree that Own the Podium was a good investment. We want our country\u2019s best athletes \u2013 who\u2019ve made us so proud over the last two weeks \u2013 to inspire young Canadians in every corner of this country, on every local ski hill and in every neighbourhood arena.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Ignatieff yesterday repeated the Liberal commitment to maintain Own the Podium\u2019s funding with $22 million in long-term, predictable federal support after the Harper government announced it will only continue with $11 million for two years, leaving an $11 million shortfall and uncertainty going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Liberals, we\u2019re proud of our role in developing this program, and we support its continuation,\u201d said Mr. Ignatieff. \u201cNot only do we want to keep the best sporting expertise in Canada, but our investment in the top of the pyramid of our sporting activity is also an investment in the base. We can inspire even more young Canadians to \u2018own the podium\u2019 of the future and widen sporting participation, improving the health of our children in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Own the Podium was originally launched in 2005 under a Liberal government, with the support of Canada\u2019s 13 winter national sport organizations, Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Vancouver Organizing Committee.<\/p>\n
Liberal Critic for Amateur Sport and the Vancouver Olympics Joyce Murray also took Mr. Harper to task for attempting to take credit for the Own the Podium program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Prime Minister is content to capitalize on the high that Canadians are feeling towards the Olympic Games and our athletes with countless photo-ops,\u201d said Ms. Murray. \u201cBut when it comes to supporting our athletes, he\u2019s all too eager to take credit for Own the Podium while cutting its funding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff again reiterated his full support for the Own the Podium program after Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday refused to reverse his government\u2019s ill-advised decision to cut its funding. \u201cCanada\u2019s athletes had a remarkable Olympics, leading the way with more gold than any country ever,\u201d said Mr. Ignatieff. \u201cAfter the success we\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-381258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}