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“Canada really is a great place to build cars, and our government is serious about supporting this industry and the well-paid, highly-skilled jobs that it represents,” she said.[/np_storybar]

Though the Liberals and Tories – theoretically at least – come at the issue of corporate welfare from different directions, they seem to land at the same end point. In the case of Linamar Corp., an auto parts manufacturer located in Guelph, an hour west of Toronto, that means a contribution of $50 million apiece towards a $500 million expansion.

The public funding schemes aren’t identical. Ottawa will provide $50.7 million in a repayable loan through its Automotive Innovation Fund, while Ontario $50.25 million will be a straight grant. So while you want to tap both sources, Ontario’s free money is obviously a more attractive proposition than Ottawa’s, which is supposed to be repaid. Ottawa’s record in collecting “loans” isn’t great, but at least they make a show of trying.

Tim Hudak claimed credit for saving Ontario $700 million from Chrysler Corp. Now he’s the former Tory leader.

Linamar is no struggling start-up in need of a life-saving financial contribution. Launched in 1966 as a one-man machine shop in the basement of founder Frank Hasenfratz, it now has 45 manufacturing plants around the world, 2013 sales of $3.6 billion and 19,000 employees, about 6,900 of them in Ontario.

It also has a history of smart management. Clobbered by the 2008 meltdown, as was much of Ontario’s manufacturing sector, it implemented a fierce recovery plan that saw 5,000 layoffs and sharp cuts in production. “We told people tough times don’t last, but tough teams do, and we’re one tough team,” chief executive Linda Hasenfratz told theGuelph Mercury on Monday. “We just kept saying that and eventually we got through it.”