|
Monday Jan. 15, 2007|
BACK |
NEXT
pm suspects
defeat on next budget
An interview with prime minister stephen
Harper
by
Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who last week announced a $2.6-million
pilot project to monitor paediatric wait-times for surgeries accross Canada,
and wooed a second federal Liberal into his Conservative fold, says a spring
election is possible and suspects his government will be defeated on the
next federal budget.
Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), who described the number of Liberals
leaving that party as an "exodus" to reporters in a campaign-style stop in
the riding of Mississauga-Streetsville, Ont., home to recent Wajid Khan, the
former Liberal who crossed the floor to the Conservatives, told The Hill
Times last week that he doubts the opposition parties will defeat his
government before the next federal budget is released.
"I'm telling my people that they could defeat us on the budget and I'm
telling my people to be ready," Mr. Harper said in a telephone interview.
Mr. Harper, who two weeks ago shuffled his Cabinet and expanded his ministry
to 32, also talked with The Hill Times about his government's last
year in power and his plans for the future.
It's been almost a year since you've been Prime Minister. Are you
satisfied with the job you've done?
"In the election campaign, we laid out a short list of priorities. I
believe we made good progress on all of those. People know we cut taxes and
we did the first-point reduction of the GST. We brought in serious
legislation to toughen up on crime to make streets and communities safer, we
brought a universal childcare allowance for all families with pre-school
children, and we brought in the Federal Accountability Act, which is the
most sweeping federal set of reform and accountability measures in Canadian
history. Furthermore, we did the softwood lumber agreement with the United
States that was not initially in our list, but we got on it."
So you are satisfied with the outcome.
"I believe we had a very productive year. The economy is strong, people are
not complaining about scandals or incompetence by a government that doesn't
get things done any more."
What are your plans for the future?
"We are going to talk a bit more in the weeks to come. Of course, this
government wants to keep getting things done for families and taxpayers. We
want to keep reducing taxes, but we really now are focusing on more
long-term files."
Like what?
"We want to get on with our program for serious democratic reforms including
some Senate reform; we want to do more to keep Canada's competitiveness
position and prosperity in an increasingly global economy; and we have some
big long-term challenges on the environment, climate change, and on air
pollution that are very high on our agenda right now."
What do you hope to accomplish on Senate reform before the next election?
"Well, we shall see. I guess I have to remain optimistic. We have two major
reform proposals already there right now. One is a proposal to elect future
Senators, and we also have a proposal to shorten Senators' terms from 45 to
eight years. Now, some would think that this would be a no-brainer, but in
fact, it has already been sitting in the Senate for eight months. We'll see
if the Senators will take action in the weeks to come."
Some are saying that Afghanistan will be the "the issue" during the next
election. Others suggest it will be the environment. What's your opinion?
"We'll see in the next election. What we have seen in the past couple of
elections is that the electorate is much more fragmented than it used to be.
I don't think that it is going to be one or two issues. Of course, there are
going to be some issues that are more important than others. But I believe
there are a lot of different groups of voters with a lot of different
concerns and I think that, in the end, the government and any political
party has to address a range of concerns."
Mr. Harper, I don't want to know when you want an election. I want to
know when you expect one.
"Well, I will say what I want too. We have a bill before Parliament. It's
Bill C-16 and that will set an election for October 2009. [Ontario] Premier
[Dalton] McGuinty and I are from different stripes, but one thing I agree
with is to set a fixed date for an election. The opposition could, of
course, defeat us sooner. I don't expect them to defeat us sooner than the
budget, but I'm telling my people that they could defeat us on the budget
and I'm telling my people to be ready. I don't want an election, I don't
think that the Canadian people want an election. But, if the opposition
calls for it, definitely we will be ready for it."
What are you going to do to address the concerns of Ontario Premier
Dalton McGuinty and the fiscal imbalance in general?
"This government has acknowledged that there is a fiscal imbalance between
Ottawa and lower levels of governments, the provinces in particular. We have
increased the transfers to the provinces in the last budget, we will do that
in the next budget. We will bring in a series of reforms to transfers that
will put them on a predictable and long-term basis. Will there be enough
money for Premier McGuinty or the other premiers? My guess is that probably
it will never be enough, but I think that we at least put those transfers on
fair and clearer set of criteria."
So is Mr. McGuinty going to get more than he's getting now?
"You just have to wait for the budget but I will say that we have
acknowledged the fiscal imbalance and are going to bring improvements to
that."
I know that your government is very active within ethnocultural
communities. Was Wajid Khan coming to your caucus an isolated case or do you
expect more?
"I can't speak for them. I can just say that Wajid approached the government
after the arrests in Toronto last summer. He wanted to contribute positively
as a Muslim Canadian, as a new Canadian from Pakistan, he wanted to
contribute positively to what he saw as a difficult situation that the
government was dealing with. He wanted to make a positive contribution in
this Parliament and frankly he found out that the only way to make that
contribution was to work with the government rather than working with the
opposition. And when he made his decision he laid out several things; he saw
the government acting on several issues like the landing fee or the foreign
credentials and other issues. He realized that we were the only government
in years dealing with those things. He gave his reasons, other people's
reasons may be different, but definitely this indicated there is a growing
number of new Canadians who understand and see their values and policies
more reflected in this government than in the previous governments."
Going back to the shuffle. I could understand the reasons for many
changes, but I can't figure out the need to swap the role of the ministers
of Immigration and Human Resources.
"[Immigration] Minister [Diane] Finley and [Human Resources] Minister
[Monte] Solberg are working together on numerous files that overlap those
two ministries. One, in particular, is the creation of a national forum
credentials' recognition agency, which is a commitment we made in the last
election. Minister Finley, as Human Recourses minister, has been working
hard on that and we decided that that file, when it will be completed, has
to move to Immigration. So basically the minister is moving with one of her
main responsibilities. As for minister Solberg, he is a talented guy. He
will do great in whatever job he is in."
The other interesting move was the appointment of Jason Kenney
responsible for Multiculturalism, and, this is a first, for Canadian
Identity. Can you elaborate?
"There are some functions that he will be involved with strictly related to
Multiculturalism. But our vision of this policy, if I can be blunt about it,
is that we must always be able to maintain the Canadian mosaic, and people
must be able to maintain their identity, but very much becoming part of
Canada. We don't want multiculturalism to be about ghettoizing new Canadians
who want to, along with all Canadians, be part of one strong country."
|
