Article content

OTTAWA — The Trudeau government has just marked its 3,000th spending announcement and, in doing so, has shown itself to be much more adroit in getting its MPs to hand out cheques than its predecessor.

The majority Harper government of the 41st Parliament didn’t make its 3,000th announcement until nearly two years into its mandate, on March 11, 2013. During the four-year 41st Parliament, Conservative MPs made 7,307 spending announcements, a total that Liberal MPs, at their current pace, should easily eclipse early in the third year of their mandate.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or A P.E.I. bowling alley, climate change and Haiti: Liberals surpass 3,000 spending announcements Back to video

That said, the Harper Conservatives moved more money out the door even though they made fewer announcements. By end of day on Friday — 396 days since last fall’s election — Liberal MPs had made 3,030 announcements funding projects worth a combined $18.9 billion.

It took the Harper Conservatives just 72 days after the May 2, 2011 election for that government to eclipse $18.9 billion in spending announcements.