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Monday July 1st, 2007
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Comuzzi: "Stephane,
I'm not for sale"
by
Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
MPs are not extensions of
provincial governments in Ottawa because that’s not the way Confederation
works and they shouldn’t be pressured by provincial premiers to vote a
certain way in the House of Commons, says the former federal minister of
immigration Joe Volpe.
In an interview
with The Hill Times,
the Ontario Liberal MP
waded into the dispute between Ottawa, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and
Labrador, and Saskatchewan and he criticized the pressure on MPs to side
with the premiers of their provinces to break ranks with their national
political organizations last week.
“If this practice
will be pursued further by certain provinces, then I believe that also the
MPs from Ontario might take a second look at their role,” Volpe said.
Meanwhile,
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty warned Prime Minister Stephen Harper last
week against making any further concessions to Newfoundland and Labrador,
Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan.
The three
premiers accused the Prime Minister of breaking a promise to allow them to
receive full benefits of oil and gas revenues without any reduction in
equalization payments. Harper’s government is continuing to negotiate with
Nova Scotia.
McGuinty said
last week that Ontario supports equalization, but said Ontario won’t be
taken advantage of. He said if those provinces’ fiscal capacities exceed
Ontario’s then they’re no longer entitled to equalization payments.
Volpe said that
“by now everybody has made their point, equalization has been accepted, the
provincial premiers are defending their points and they are capable of doing
it. The role of the federal government is to maintain a federation that is
unified, strong, progressive, and forward-looking and I believe that we all
should keep this in mind in all our discussions.” As for the role of the
province of Ontario, Volpe said “Ontario has always been a great contributor
to the federation’s progressive outlook. However, as a Member of Parliament
from Ontario, I know that that contribution can be taxed unduly, especially
if more and more provinces become defensive of their own interests. So, I
believe that the province of Ontario needs to defend its own interests,
however, the Members of Parliament from Ontario need to keep in mind that
when we enter in discussions like this, that Ontario is a net contributor to
the federation and the equalization plan, and we should be making sure that
nothing is done to diminish Ontario’s ability and willingness to make that
contribution. I don’t think we should put the province of Ontario in the
position where its willingness might be diminished.” Lately, however, this
role seems to be under a lot of stress. “Lately, the Members of Parliament
from Ontario have been under a lot of pressure from the City of Toronto, in
particular, and from Ontario, in general. We are accustomed to this pressure
but, I said earlier, we always have to keep in mind to keep the interests of
the federation front and centre. The provincial premiers defend the
interests of their provinces.
For us, unity is
the most important and the national economy is important for building a
society for tomorrow. I wouldn’t like to see a situation develop where
Members of Parliament from Ontario are nothing more than an extension of the
provincial government of Ontario.” Volpe wouldn’t criticize his own Liberal
Party but said that “speaking from a partisan point of view, I wouldn’t like
to see the current Prime Minister as the sole spokesman for Ontario.” Will
that bring about a change in the attitude of the Liberal MPs from Ontario?
“That’s not the way our Confederation will be strengthened, but my concern
is that other provinces, including Ontario, might make similar demands to
their Members of Parliament, and that would be a development that would not
be very productive and we would have to rethink the whole issue of
representation.” Asked why he voted against the federal budget if he’s in
favour of the equalization formula presented by the federal government,
Volpe said the federal budget is not just about one issue: “I voted against
for a variety of reasons. I don’t believe that the budget will accomplish
what I believe is important. However, what the discussion is now focused on
in the budget, unfortunately, is on something that divides Canadians.” The
former federal minister for Ontario said that “we are talking about
equalization as the centrepiece of the budget. Yes, I voted against the
budget, but I think that the discussion of the equalization runs the risk of
dividing the country because the precedents that have been vigorously and
aggressively moved by provincial premiers will have a cascading effect on
provinces, in particular in Ontario, which is a net contributor to the
equalization.”
THUNDER BAY,
ONT.—MP Joe Comuzzi, who joined the Conservative national caucus last week
after sitting as a Liberal MP for 19 years and will be the first
Conservative to represent the riding since 1930, says the Prime Minister
never tried to buy his loyalty and that he was the one to approach the
Conservatives first.
“I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, let me be clear immediately, and then we can
get on with business, but I’m not here to negotiate: I’ve made up my mind,
I’m asking you to let me join the Conservative Party’s caucus and there are
no conditions,’” Mr. Comuzzi told
The Hill Times
last
week after Prime Minister Stephen Harper flew to Mr. Comuzzi’s Thunder
Bay-Superior North, Ont., riding to make the announcement.
Mr. Comuzzi said that particular conversation unfolded between himself and
the Prime Minister on June 21 and was one of their last afternoon meetings
in Ottawa.
Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), of course, welcomed Mr. Comuzzi into
his caucus and briefly dealt with the dynamic of the announcement, but Mr.
Comuzzi said that was the only part in which he himself was the topic of any
conversation.
“Joe Comuzzi supported our recent budget and our historic deal which
resolved the Canada-U.S. softwood dispute,” Mr.
Harper said last Tuesday in a statement.
“So it feels very comfortable to stand here today with Joe and welcome him
to the Conservative Caucus.” Mr. Comuzzi, 74, was first elected in 1988. He
is the first Conservative to represent the area since 1930. Mr. Comuzzi will
not seek re-election.
Mr. Comuzzi said after that the June 21 conversation with the Prime
Minister, other issues were mentioned but that the main subject was Northern
Ontario. Mr.
Comuzzi said his decision to move to the Conservative Party was finalized
during that June 21 meeting, but emphasized that the process started a long
time ago.
He said it’s been years since he and the Liberal Party, the party he once
believed, in actually gelled.
“I gave 18 years to the Liberal Party.
But it’s not my party anymore,” he said in a statement last week to
reporters. “Mr. Dion is taking it down a road I cannot follow.” Liberal
Leader Stéphane Dion (Saint- Laurent-Cartierville, Que.) kicked Mr.
Comuzzi out of the Liberal caucus after he voted for the Conservatives’ 2007
budget.
Mr. Comuzzi supported the budget because it promised $14.7-million for a
molecular medicine research money that would create 300 jobs in Thunder Bay.
But long before that Mr. Comuzzi said he’s had troubles with his former
party.
He said he did not like former prime minister Jean Chrétien’s style in
dealing with his MPs and he did not like many of the decisions adopted by
his government, including the Chrétien government’s decision not to
compensate the victims of hepatitis-C.
Mr. Comuzzi left then-prime minister Paul Martin’s (LaSalle-Émard, Que.)
Cabinet in 2005 to vote against the Liberal government’s legislation to
legalize same-sex marriage and battled with the Liberals over gun registry
spending and by calling for a review of official bilingualism.
He said he gave up his Cabinet position as minister of state for the Federal
Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario because he made a
commitment to his constituents and wanted to respect it.
But the root of his dissent with the Liberal Party goes much deeper: he did
not agree with his government and how it handled the softwood lumber dispute
and tried hard to help in negotiations. At one point, he had set the stage
for a favourable agreement, but his efforts were snubbed and undermined by
the ministers of his own government, he said.
But his disappointment with Mr. Chrétien’s regime was nothing compared to
the disappointment with Paul Martin. He said he supported Mr. Martin since
1989, “but he was my biggest political disappointment.” Mr. Comuzzi said he
was also disappointed by how his party treated former Liberal leadership
candidate Joe Volpe (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) and, as a Liberal MP of
Italian origin, said Mr. Volpe’s treatment illustrated to him that the
Liberal Party is less open to ethnocultural minorities than it says it is.
Mr. Comuzzi said the behaviour of the media and the Liberal Party against
Mr.
Volpe left a mark on many ethnocultural communities. Interestingly, Mr.
Comuzzi and former Liberal MP Wajid Khan both supported Mr. Volpe and both
joined the Conservatives.
Mr. Comuzzi said things did not change with the election of Mr. Dion. Mr.
Volpe and his supporters were immediately marginalized.
Mr. Comuzzi received a phone call from Mr. Dion a few days after his Dec. 5
election. The new leader told the veteran MP that he was going to be left
out of the shadow Cabinet: “ ‘We want new blood,’” he was told. Mr. Dion
excluded Mr. Volpe from his “dream team” presentation in Toronto in January,
including all leadership candidates.
But Mr. Dion is not much interested in “new blood” when it comes to Massimo
Pacetti (Saint-Léonard-Saint-Michel, Que.), a young bright Liberal MP from
Montreal with a problem: he supported Joe Volpe.
Meanwhile, Mr. Comuzzi’s vote to support Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-
Oshawa, Ont.) was just the last hurdle: Mr. Comuzzi was turfed even before
he supported Mr. Harper’s budget for a political sin that Mr. Dion urged the
Liberal Senators to commit.
“It’s different, they are not elected and they can’t go against the will of
the House,” Mr. Dion said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Comuzzi responded to some innuendo last week coming from some
Liberal quarters about the possibility of a deal: “Stéphane, I was in
government with you, and I left to follow my principles. I’m not going now
to sell my principles now to go back where I was. Stéphane, I’m not for
sale.”
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