Posted on 01/16/2006 2:46:15 PM PST by fanfan
SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick (Reuters) - The man likely to be elected the new prime minister in a week's time, Conservative leader Stephen Harper, said on Monday he wants to boost defense spending enough for the world to take notice.
"I've made no secret of our desire to rebuild the Canadian military to have the capacities of a sovereign nation," Harper told supporters on a campaign swing through Atlantic Canada. "To make foreign policy decisions that are not only independent but are actually noticed by other powers around the world."
With just a week until next Monday's election, Harper's Conservatives are enjoying a lead of eight to 13 percentage points in the polls over the Liberals, who have been in power since 1993. That margin puts them on the verge of winning a majority in Parliament.
The Liberals of Prime Minister Paul Martin have been hit hard by scandals, an ill-starred campaign and voter fatigue.
Martin was upbeat on Monday, predicting in a speech in Vancouver: "We're going to win the election." But minutes later, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh became the latest member of the government to admit the Liberals have a big challenge.
"There's no denying that there is this view in some quarters of the country that they're looking for change," he told reporters. "There's no question that we have a gap to make up. There's a lot of fight left in us yet."
Harper's remarks on defense appeared partly to be in response to frequent criticism from Martin that Conservative policies would damage the country at home and abroad.
Harper said his commitments had all been detailed, dollar by dollar. "I'll only make promises I know we can afford and we can keep," he said.
Martin, who was finance minister in the 1990s, eliminated the country's chronic budget deficits, partly through cutting defense spending to levels that were criticized by NATO and the United States.
He charges that Harper's plans would leave a C$22 billion ($19.5 billion) hole in the federal budget, which would require major spending cuts.
"It is easy to make 196 promises but it is much harder to make a choice, to choose between one program and another, one service and another. I know this because I've been there," he said in his Vancouver speech.
"To me, (Harper's plan) sounds very much like the kind of thinking we did away with 13 years ago when we decided it was time to turn our country around."
Conservative strategists are watching to see if their lead in the polls will start eroding as it did in the 2004 campaign, when they were ahead by a smaller margin and ended up losing to Martin, despite a corruption scandal that weakened the Liberals.
An SES/CPAC poll on Monday showed an eight-point lead, unchanged from Sunday, while two others showed a widening gap. Strategic Counsel put the Conservatives ahead by 40 to 27 percent, and Ekos had them at 38.6 percent support to 27.2 percent.
Harper, 46, is trying to walk a fine line between being upbeat and sounding too confident, thereby risking scaring away voters leery of his party taking majority power.
He has been particularly keen in the past several days to point to momentum in Quebec, where the Conservatives have displaced the Liberals and are now second in the polls to the Bloc Quebecois, which wants an independent Quebec.
"We are gaining support in every region of the country, and we are pulling votes away from both the Liberals and the Bloc. That's good for Quebec and that's good for Canada," he said.
(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Vancouver)
The Toronto Star will report Harper saying:
"Today, Canada - tomorrow, the world!"
It's easy to eliminate defense spending to prop up a bloated socialist government, especially when you live next to the greatest military power in the world. I'm surprised it took Martin to finally do it--the Europeans have been doing it for years.
OMG, watta wimp.
LOL!
Canada Ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Gonna get gas for the Spads...wooohooo!
Just kidding, Canada has some very professional soldiers - glad to hear they might actually get some money for new equipment and upgrades.
They need to up the defense budget to be able to flood each city with military, don't they?
It would be nice if their combined armed forces numbered more than 10,000.
"They need to up the defense budget to be able to flood each city with military,"
With guns.
In our cities.
In Canada.
We can't make this up.
We're not allowed to make this up.
Choose your Canada.
ROFLOL! Our Liberals are must be the butt of every joke in the world right now.
This whole situation is ....bizarre.
The Liberals think we are afraid of our Armed Forces?
Idiots!
They plan to push it fro the current level of $250 (CAN) to $260 (CAN).
US military still committed to defending our former close friend.
fro = from
Although Martin did cut the defence budget the impact on the deficit was negligible. They balanced the budget because (1) they slashed payments to the provinces and (2) the economic revival created in Ontario by Mike Harris and in Alberta by Ralph Klein caused tax revenues to soar.
Canada's Dollar, Little Changed, May Rise on Conservative Win
LOL!
They are Liberals.
They lied.
They never moved!
Like a liberal would keep their word.
;-)
They can go to Mexico.
Very true! LOL
OMG, watta wimp.
No.
Harper is saying that we will start to make a difference in the world again.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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