Harper launches post-budget tour in Winnipeg, will attend tonight’s Jets game

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This article was published 22/04/2015 (3848 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will launch his post-budget, pre-election tour in Winnipeg tonight and tomorrow, starting with a stop in to cheer on the Jets as they try to stave off elimination in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Harper is in the House of Commons this afternoon for question period, but will fly to the city later today to attend tonight’s game.

Tomorrow he will visit FC Woodworks in Transcona where he likely will highlight the budget’s promises to help manufacturing, including extending the accelerated capital cost allowance for investment in manufacturing machinery and equipment for another 10 years.

Later on in the day he will make another announcement at the Victoria Inn.

There is speculation, based in part on some of those invited to the event, this event will include discussion of a new research initiative related to Harper’s global maternal health intitiative.

Harper’s visit in the city will continue Friday. He may also use the trip to unveil plans for the new National Research Council facility planned for the city, designed to work with the yet-to-be unveiled Factories of the Future program focusing on aerospace and automotive research.

The government is in the process of selling its two existing NRC buildings on Ellice Avenue.

Harper has also still not visited the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which his government made possible when it agreed in 2007 to make it a federal institution complete with federal operating dollars.

There is no word yet on whether a museum stop is planned.

This will be at least the third Jets game he has attended after attending the first regular season Jets home game after the team’s return in 2011 and another game in the fall of 2013.
Harper is a hockey fanatic whose first team of choice is the Toronto Maple Leafs but he will cheer for others if the Leafs aren’t playing.

He also has a history of attending major hockey games including the gold medal game of the World Junior Hockey Championships in Toronto in January and the gold medal games for both the men’s and women’s hockey teams at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca