Stephen Harper and George W. Bush
Posted on 01/12/2006 10:47:18 PM PST by UpHereEh
OTTAWA (CP) - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is saying "No" to Kyoto, "Maybe" to missile defence, and "Sort of" to aboriginals.
And that has Liberals shouting: "We told you so." Harper signalled Thursday that he would turn his back on the Kyoto climate-change accord and renegotiate a recent $5-billion federal-provincial deal with natives. And he left the door open to joining the controversial U.S. missile defence system, while promising to hold a free vote in Parliament before signing on.
The Liberals, who have been painting Harper as a pro-American, right-wing extremist, jumped on his statements.
Environment Minister Stephane Dion said abandoning Kyoto would be a "tragedy" that would undermine the global effort to curb climate change.
"We will send a signal to the forces of progress that Canada is not with them anymore, we are with the resistance," he said.
Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott said Harper's election would mean a step backward for aboriginals and destroy 18 months of work.
Harper, speaking in Halifax, said he'd abandon Kyoto because its emission-reduction targets can't be met and he'd set Canadian-made targets instead.
He said he supports the principles of the November native agreement, which included big-money pledges for housing, education and health care. And he said he will honour a $2-billion compensation plan for decades of abuse in residential schools.
"But in terms of details and budgets, we're going to want to develop our own plans in consultation with the provinces and with native organizations."
On missile defence, Harper told Radio Canada that he would wait for a formal, written offer from the Americans before deciding whether Canada should participate.
"If the Americans propose such an arrangement, and if we come to the conclusion that it's in the country's best interests, it's my intention to turn this treaty over to Parliament for a free vote," he said.
Earlier Thursday, Harper moved to staunch a controversy involving a Conservative candidate in B.C.
Derek Zeisman has been charged with trying to smuggle a car and 112 containers of alcohol into Canada - not exactly the kind of news the leader of a law-order party wit a big lead in the polls likes to hear.
Harper announced that Zeisman will not be allowed to sit as a Conservative MP if elected. But he added that it's "too late in the campaign legally for me to withdraw the candidate or change the candidate."
Harper said the party didn't know of the charges until this week, but Zeisman insisted in a newspaper interview that officials did know.
NDP Leader Jack Layton, who is campaigning as the defender of public health care, was facing a controversy of his own after it was revealed to The Canadian Press that he had surgery in the mid-1990s at a private clinic.
Layton said he wasn't aware the Shouldice Hospital north of Toronto was private when he went for his hernia surgery, and he emphasized that the treatment was covered by the public health system.
"It's just part of the system," he said in Port Hardy, B.C. "The doctor says, 'Go there.' You pay with your (Ontario health) card. It never occurred to me (to be) anything other than medicare, which it is."
He stressed that the Shouldice clinic is a not-for-profit facility that was grandfathered into the Ontario medical system when medicare began.
The controversies provided a bit of breathing room for Prime Minister Paul Martin, who has been under fire over a now-infamous attack ad that slams Harper for wanting to station troops in cities.
The ad outraged some military personnel who felt it suggested they would be a threat to democracy.
Martin said the ad wasn't aimed at soldiers.
"I support our military," he said. "I've probably put more money into the military than almost any prime minister . . . (The ads have) nothing to do with soldiers."
Liberal MP Keith Martin, who represents a B.C. riding that includes CFB Esquimalt, went further. He apologized to Canadians and blamed the ad on an "idiot" who released it by mistake.
Still, the Liberals appeared undaunted by the criticism over the ad and stepped up their efforts to characterize Harper as an extremist.
They sent out a news release Thursday saying Harper spoke last March in Richmond, B.C., at a fundraising dinner for a far-right group that speaks out against gay marriage and abortion.
The party also said the Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association published a caricature on the cover of its July/August issue which portrayed Paul Martin as a Nazi receiving an award from Adolf Hitler for "the destruction of Canada's foundational institution (family)."
There was actually a bit of policy among the politics Thursday.
-Harper announced that a Conservative government would spend $200 million on "experimental" tax incentives to encourage builders to create more affordable housing.
-Martin was in the Toronto suburb of Markham promising to invest $180 million to create four institutes in different fields of study to bring together companies and university researchers to spur innovation.
-Layton pressed on with his message that he would create 40,000 more long-term care spaces for seniors, spend $1 billion a year to improve home-care services, and set up a national prescription drug insurance plan.
I thought Australia had a copyright on 'aboriginal'......
No I think Paul "We Lead The World" Martin does ; )
LOL. Sad State of Affairs 'up there'. Stay sane.
Only one more week to go of this liberal dictatorship and then Canada and the U.S. can get back to being allies.
Crissake! At last a common sense plan from North of the Border? Maybe there is a breath of life in the Canadian Conservative movement after all?
"renegotiate a recent $5-billion federal-provincial deal with natives."
He just stepped into the cow pie with that one.
Hopefully not, but we'll see.
The native agreements went forward because Steven Kakfwi (who is a Catholic) petioned Pope Jean Paul to put pressure on the Canadian government to settle Indian land claims. The Pope gave his blessings.
Harper made a mistake here. This will come back to haunt.
Not really because the liberals didn't draft the agreement in the first place, the NDP did on a napkin in the middle of the night back when they came up with their "save the corrupt liberal budget" in the spring of 2005.
None of the monies, nor the agreement have come into effect yet so the Conservatives are saying that they don't want the liberals policy on Aboriginal affairs, they want to come up with their own, together with the natives.
Even better, one of the liberal candidates came out and said the person who approved the ad was an "idiot" and at the same time Paul Martin was on national TV admitting that he approved the ad himself.
The breakdown of the $5.1 billion is as follows with:
• $1.8-billion for education, focused mostly on reserves, for new aboriginal school boards and postsecondary bursaries;
• $1.6-billion for housing and infrastructure, with $600-million to private and social housing on reserves and $400-million to improve water-treatment systems and other infrastructure;
• $170-million for “relationships and accountability,” including $90-million to aboriginal organizations to boost their ability to study and propose public policy and $20-million for “engagement” on landclaim and self-government rights;
• $200-million for economic development projects.
Manitoba’s First Nation communities will receive $750 million over the next five years as part of a larger national strategy to improve the lives of many aboriginal people living in impoverished conditions.
The $5.1 billion promised over the next five years breaks down to $3,864 per aboriginal person.
Many urban groups, women’s groups and First Nation groups oppose the summit.
Urban and women’s groups are saying with more than half of Canada’s aboriginal population living off-reserve that they should get more of a share of money from the federal government than they have been receiving.
Individual First Nations leaders like Rolling River First Nation Chief Morris Shannacappo have pulled their support from the Assembly of First Nations to negotiate a deal on their behalf.
Grand Chief Chris Henderson, Southern Chiefs Organization (of Manitoba), reported that leaders of his communities want many of the problems addressed through existing treaties that are recognized on a government-to-government basis.
The inclusion of aboriginal organizations that do not have a historic or legal connection through treaties continues to be a sticking point for many First Nation leaders.
However, with the announcement by the opposition parties in Ottawa that they intend to defeat the sitting government with a non-confidence motion sending the proposed solutions and money to the great land of promises in the sky.
NDP MP Pat Martin said to the media he hopes the commitments will be lived up to by having the NDP say the next federal government will have to support this issue to receive NDP support in the next session of parliament.
http://www.firstperspective.ca/story_2005_12_6_first.php
Oops, I missed copying the first part:
2005-12-6
First Ministers Meeting breakdown
The First Ministers’ Meeting has produced some tangible results with the announcement by Prime Minister Paul Martin of $5.1 billion going to First Nations to address housing, health care, education.
The meeting on Aboriginal Issues is the first meeting totally devoted to aboriginal issues where representatives of national aboriginal organizations – Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Metis National Council, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and the Native Women’s Association of Canada – were invited to participate at the table.
Martin outlined the goals he would like to achieve at the conference indicating that his support will go beyond the initial $5.1 billion allotted over the next five years. He would like to:
• close the high school graduation gap that exists between aboriginal people and the rest of Canada within 10 years and the halving the post secondary gap for both men and women within that time frame.
• doubling aboriginal health professionals in 10 years from 150 doctors and 1,200 nurses.
• and lowering infant mortality rates, youth suicide, childhood obesity and diabetes by 20 percent in the next five years.
The greatest obstacle to resolve at the conference has been the constant battles over jurisdictional issues when it comes to delivering health care for aboriginal peoples whether they lived on or offreserve. For example, a First Nation person has always been considered a federal responsibility while the delivery of medical services has been a provincial responsibility.
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