Jobs announcement first of many

Last week, local MPs Mark Eyking and Rodger Cuzner held a news conference to announce 44 new federal jobs to be located in New Waterford. At 15.1 per cent unemployment, jobs are vitally needed in Cape Breton.

The announcement, however, came with a bit of a catch-22. For all those searching for career opportunities at home, discovering that these positions had already been filled was a bit of a disappointment for some.

With that said, rooting our young graduates in Cape Breton and the wider province is very important for the future of our economy. In fact, at a provincial level, it’s one of the key campaign strategies for PC MLA and leadership candidate, Tim Houston. We should all be happy for these recent graduates securing a good job to kick off their careers at home.

But we also need our MPs to be a little wiser with their communications. We’re a year out from a federal election, and we’re going to see many more announcements and photo opportunities from incumbent politicians trying to convince voters to stick with them. It’s the reason why these well-known MPs had to be introduced with their entire curriculum vitae enumerated by the host speaker before offering a surprise announcement of jobs that were already filled. People are more important than campaigns except from the perspective of a politician at risk in an upcoming election. Joe Ward Sydney