Aspers and Richardsons check couch cushions for Upper Fort Garry donation

So the Richardson and Asper families have each donated $500,000 to the idiotic plan to build an empty heritage park at the old Upper Fort Garry site. Big freakin’ deal.

According to the most recent edition of The Rich 100, the net worth of the Richardson clan is $2 billion. The Aspers have slipped a bit in recent years, but still come in at a respectable $833 million. So a little rough math shows the Richardsons are donating approximately 0.00025% of their loot to UFG, while the Aspers are in for 0.0006%. All in all, this equates to about one decent afternoon’s worth of interest for either family.

By way of comparison, this is roughly the same as me donating $25. I somehow doubt that CJOB would do back flips over that donation, even if I doubled it.

Speaking of which, “Manitoba’s Information Superstation” should be embarrassed for the pathetic shill job it did for the UFG plan this morning. How the hell you can claim to be one of the province’s leading media sources while shamelessly touting such a foolish plan is beyond me.

Further, I wish the Friends of Upper Fort Garry would stop being so deceptive. They keep stating they need to raise $3.5 million by the end of March. That’s a lie, plain and simple. They need to raise $12.5 million, and they’re nowhere close.

So, in summary:

• Richardsons and Aspers – thanks for the spare change, but how about redirecting it to some of the other under-funded initiatives you’ve got us involved with instead?
• Friends of Upper Fort Garry – Stop lying about your fundraising requirements, and start thinking sensibly about how a heritage park could co-exist with a residential development.
• CJOB – If Vic Grant wants to editorialize about his love for Upper Fort Garry, go nuts. But “excuse me” for thinking you lose credibility when your lead investigative journalist does infomercials for a project that does not have community-wide support.

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In completely unrelated news, this post from the Freep’s Mary Agnes Welch made me laugh. She’s actually a fairly entertaining blogger, it’s a shame she doesn’t post more often.