Do you agree that it's absolutely a disgrace to have Canadian flags handed out by government officials that are made in China?
How can Premier Dalton McStupid claim that he is not responsible for this... it's taxpayers money!
If you wish to buy a Canadian flag at Walmart or Niagara Falls... go knock yourself out. But for the Ontario government to do this is an embarassment.
Your opinion?
Made in China flag an 'insult'
New Democrat Peter Kormos literally wrapped himself in the flag yesterday after getting a shipment of Ontario Red Ensigns with a made-in-China tag on them.
"This just boggles the mind," the MPP from the struggling manufacturing town of Welland said yesterday.
"I can't give this flag away in the riding of Welland, so many workers have lost their jobs. I would have this flag thrown back at me, thrown at my face.
"It would be an insult for me to give this flag to any community group in Welland."
Kormos said he orders flags through the Ontario legislature every year and for the past 12, they've all come from Flying Colours International Scythes Inc., on Sterling Rd. in Toronto.
Last year the locally produced, 81x162 cm version cost him $18 a pop. The new, overseas version he just received cost $13 each, feels and looks thinner and less bright in colour and has a less well-rendered version of the province's venerated maple leaf cluster.
"This is shameful, it's embarrassing, it's pathetic, it's rude, it's insulting," Kormos said.
"I just have no possible way of expressing how frustrating and angry it is for me to discover this.
"I will be attempting to return these flags and I will once again be ordering from Flying Colours International. I encourage all the other MPPs to do the same."
Ontario's manufacturing sector has been savaged over the past four years, losing an estimated 300,000. Those numbers have accelerated in the past few months as the global recession takes its toll.
Sylvia Nemanic, executive director of administrative services for the legislature, said purchasing at Queen's Park is done strictly on the basis of the best price available, and that there hasn't been any "buy Ontario" preference for years.
"We take competitive bids and award it to the company with the most competitive bid," she said.
"That's what we would look for -- the price. We would not ask where they were made. We wouldn't specify that."
MPPs don't have to buy through the legislature if they choose not to, she said.
Karman Wong, a spokesman for Premier Dalton McGuinty, said the government doesn't tell the legislative assembly how to operate.
"This is not a decision made by the government and it's not something we support," she said.
"We make sure that the flags used for the premier's events are manufactured in Ontario."
Just last week, the Liberal government sternly rapped its lottery corporation's knuckles over a plan to give away luxury Mercedes-Benz cars, even as Ontario-based automakers tottered on the edge of bankruptcy.
Observers pointed out the Benzes are made with Hamilton steel, another struggling industry, but the optics of the situation forced the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. into retreat.
Speaker Steve Peters, who oversees the legislature operations, conceded the flags are a similarly charged issue.
"More and more we're extremely conscious of trying to support our own economies," he said. "Something that is symbolic like the provincial flag -- to see that with the tag of being made in another country does set off some alarm bells. It sends a message."
How can Premier Dalton McStupid claim that he is not responsible for this... it's taxpayers money!
If you wish to buy a Canadian flag at Walmart or Niagara Falls... go knock yourself out. But for the Ontario government to do this is an embarassment.
Your opinion?
Made in China flag an 'insult'
New Democrat Peter Kormos literally wrapped himself in the flag yesterday after getting a shipment of Ontario Red Ensigns with a made-in-China tag on them.
"This just boggles the mind," the MPP from the struggling manufacturing town of Welland said yesterday.
"I can't give this flag away in the riding of Welland, so many workers have lost their jobs. I would have this flag thrown back at me, thrown at my face.
"It would be an insult for me to give this flag to any community group in Welland."
Kormos said he orders flags through the Ontario legislature every year and for the past 12, they've all come from Flying Colours International Scythes Inc., on Sterling Rd. in Toronto.
Last year the locally produced, 81x162 cm version cost him $18 a pop. The new, overseas version he just received cost $13 each, feels and looks thinner and less bright in colour and has a less well-rendered version of the province's venerated maple leaf cluster.
"This is shameful, it's embarrassing, it's pathetic, it's rude, it's insulting," Kormos said.
"I just have no possible way of expressing how frustrating and angry it is for me to discover this.
"I will be attempting to return these flags and I will once again be ordering from Flying Colours International. I encourage all the other MPPs to do the same."
Ontario's manufacturing sector has been savaged over the past four years, losing an estimated 300,000. Those numbers have accelerated in the past few months as the global recession takes its toll.
Sylvia Nemanic, executive director of administrative services for the legislature, said purchasing at Queen's Park is done strictly on the basis of the best price available, and that there hasn't been any "buy Ontario" preference for years.
"We take competitive bids and award it to the company with the most competitive bid," she said.
"That's what we would look for -- the price. We would not ask where they were made. We wouldn't specify that."
MPPs don't have to buy through the legislature if they choose not to, she said.
Karman Wong, a spokesman for Premier Dalton McGuinty, said the government doesn't tell the legislative assembly how to operate.
"This is not a decision made by the government and it's not something we support," she said.
"We make sure that the flags used for the premier's events are manufactured in Ontario."
Just last week, the Liberal government sternly rapped its lottery corporation's knuckles over a plan to give away luxury Mercedes-Benz cars, even as Ontario-based automakers tottered on the edge of bankruptcy.
Observers pointed out the Benzes are made with Hamilton steel, another struggling industry, but the optics of the situation forced the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. into retreat.
Speaker Steve Peters, who oversees the legislature operations, conceded the flags are a similarly charged issue.
"More and more we're extremely conscious of trying to support our own economies," he said. "Something that is symbolic like the provincial flag -- to see that with the tag of being made in another country does set off some alarm bells. It sends a message."