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Klein steps on Harper's toes - again
Predicts Liberals will win minority
Tory leader `too right' for Ontario
Nov. 24, 2005. 04:16 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
OTTAWA—Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has blundered once again into the federal Conservatives' election hopes, while Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is promising to keep nagging the federal Liberals for more money during the looming campaign.
Caught in an off-guard but candid moment at a Halifax casino yesterday, Klein predicted a Liberal minority government in the election expected to be called next week because Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was seen to be "too much on the right" to carry Ontario.
"If I were a betting man, I would say there will be another minority," Klein said following a business-luncheon speech. "It's a damn shame."
The comment led an exasperated Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay to suggest "duct tape" as a means to silence the Alberta leader.
The election campaign hasn't even officially begun, and the provincial premiers are jumping deep in the fray, for better or for worse. They join Prime Minister Paul Martin today for an aboriginal summit in B.C. and will stay at his side all the way to the Grey Cup on Sunday — the eve of Monday's probable collapse of the federal government.
Coming just a couple of days after Klein sat down in Ottawa for a two-hour meeting with Harper, which included talk of Conservative co-operation in the looming election, the blurt riled federal Tories preparing to hit the campaign trail after a no-confidence vote scheduled for next Monday in the Commons.
"He said he was going to be helpful. This is not helpful," an exasperated MacKay told reporters yesterday.
Klein had used his appearance in Ottawa on Monday, in front of the scenes and behind the scenes with Harper, to warn that he wouldn't allow the federal Liberals to turn him into campaign fodder again.
But it took only a couple of days for Klein to again become a problem for Harper. Federal Liberals were gleeful about the Klein prediction yesterday.
"He's wrong," joked Immigration Minister Joe Volpe, who's also the political minister for Ontario. "It's going to be a majority."
Labour Minister Joe Fontana said Harper should pay attention to Klein.
"He's got some great political instincts. We've been trying to convince the Conservatives that we don't need an election ... maybe Harper doesn't listen to us, he may want to listen to his buddy Ralph."
Klein caused Harper headaches in the last election when he started musing about challenging the Canada Health Act mid-campaign. Martin gleefully seized on Klein's prospective plans as proof that the Tories would dismantle medicare — part of a larger scare campaign that probably eked out the minority win for the Liberals.
But Klein wasn't the only premier causing problems for his federal political kin back in 2004. Even though he shares the same Liberal stripes, McGuinty helped kick the Martin campaign off to a shaky start in 2004 by introducing health-care premiums to Ontario taxpayers on the eve of the election call. And yesterday, even as McGuinty's government was inking pre-election deals with Ottawa to boost money for provincial labour-market and immigration programs, the premier was saying that he'd be hounding Martin for more money when the campaign gets under way.
Not content with $920 million for immigration settlement over five years or nearly $1.4 billion in yesterday's labour market development agreement over five and a half years, McGuinty says he will be stepping up his demands.
"We're going to move into phase two of the gap campaign now," the Liberal premier said, referring to the $23 billion gap between what Ottawa sends to Ontario and is returned to the province in services.
"We talked about things like the labour market development agreement and an immigration agreement. Now, I'm going to be speaking to the Prime Minister about fairness when it comes to Canada health and Canada social transfers," he said.
"If we received the same amounts on a per capita basis as the other provinces did for the Canada health and Canada social transfers, we'd get about $1 billion more every year."
Human Resources Minister Belinda Stronach, who announced yesterday's deals, refused to be drawn in by McGuinty's insistence on more federal generosity, saying "I think I'll wait to hear that from Mr. McGuinty directly."
Stronach insisted relations between the federal and Ontario Liberals are excellent and that yesterday's arrangements hail a "new era" of co-operation.
Behind the scenes, and speaking under conditions of anonymity, PMO advisers are a little more skeptical about premiers and provinces mixing it up with the federal government around election time. Logistically, it's pretty well unavoidable, given the way Martin's government has been blurring the lines and buying its way into traditionally provincial areas of authority.
"We are in an era of me-first provincialism," one said yesterday. "There's a lot of talk about who gets credit, the federal government or the provinces."
A notable exception, at least in the view of the PMO these days, is B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, the host of this weekend's aboriginal summit.
According to one adviser: "Gordon Campbell is the new Bill Davis" — referring to the former long-reigning premier of Ontario who used his position to be an honest broker for the entire federation.
Martin's advisers believe Campbell is one of the few premiers thinking beyond his own province's boundaries these days, though they also have credited Manitoba's Gary Doer and New Brunswick's Bernard Lord for occasional flashes of that attitude in the past.
with files from Robert Benzie,
Richard Brennan, CP
___________________________________________
if klein doesn't think he's good.. :eek
Predicts Liberals will win minority
Tory leader `too right' for Ontario
Nov. 24, 2005. 04:16 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
OTTAWA—Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has blundered once again into the federal Conservatives' election hopes, while Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is promising to keep nagging the federal Liberals for more money during the looming campaign.
Caught in an off-guard but candid moment at a Halifax casino yesterday, Klein predicted a Liberal minority government in the election expected to be called next week because Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was seen to be "too much on the right" to carry Ontario.
"If I were a betting man, I would say there will be another minority," Klein said following a business-luncheon speech. "It's a damn shame."
The comment led an exasperated Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay to suggest "duct tape" as a means to silence the Alberta leader.
The election campaign hasn't even officially begun, and the provincial premiers are jumping deep in the fray, for better or for worse. They join Prime Minister Paul Martin today for an aboriginal summit in B.C. and will stay at his side all the way to the Grey Cup on Sunday — the eve of Monday's probable collapse of the federal government.
Coming just a couple of days after Klein sat down in Ottawa for a two-hour meeting with Harper, which included talk of Conservative co-operation in the looming election, the blurt riled federal Tories preparing to hit the campaign trail after a no-confidence vote scheduled for next Monday in the Commons.
"He said he was going to be helpful. This is not helpful," an exasperated MacKay told reporters yesterday.
Klein had used his appearance in Ottawa on Monday, in front of the scenes and behind the scenes with Harper, to warn that he wouldn't allow the federal Liberals to turn him into campaign fodder again.
But it took only a couple of days for Klein to again become a problem for Harper. Federal Liberals were gleeful about the Klein prediction yesterday.
"He's wrong," joked Immigration Minister Joe Volpe, who's also the political minister for Ontario. "It's going to be a majority."
Labour Minister Joe Fontana said Harper should pay attention to Klein.
"He's got some great political instincts. We've been trying to convince the Conservatives that we don't need an election ... maybe Harper doesn't listen to us, he may want to listen to his buddy Ralph."
Klein caused Harper headaches in the last election when he started musing about challenging the Canada Health Act mid-campaign. Martin gleefully seized on Klein's prospective plans as proof that the Tories would dismantle medicare — part of a larger scare campaign that probably eked out the minority win for the Liberals.
But Klein wasn't the only premier causing problems for his federal political kin back in 2004. Even though he shares the same Liberal stripes, McGuinty helped kick the Martin campaign off to a shaky start in 2004 by introducing health-care premiums to Ontario taxpayers on the eve of the election call. And yesterday, even as McGuinty's government was inking pre-election deals with Ottawa to boost money for provincial labour-market and immigration programs, the premier was saying that he'd be hounding Martin for more money when the campaign gets under way.
Not content with $920 million for immigration settlement over five years or nearly $1.4 billion in yesterday's labour market development agreement over five and a half years, McGuinty says he will be stepping up his demands.
"We're going to move into phase two of the gap campaign now," the Liberal premier said, referring to the $23 billion gap between what Ottawa sends to Ontario and is returned to the province in services.
"We talked about things like the labour market development agreement and an immigration agreement. Now, I'm going to be speaking to the Prime Minister about fairness when it comes to Canada health and Canada social transfers," he said.
"If we received the same amounts on a per capita basis as the other provinces did for the Canada health and Canada social transfers, we'd get about $1 billion more every year."
Human Resources Minister Belinda Stronach, who announced yesterday's deals, refused to be drawn in by McGuinty's insistence on more federal generosity, saying "I think I'll wait to hear that from Mr. McGuinty directly."
Stronach insisted relations between the federal and Ontario Liberals are excellent and that yesterday's arrangements hail a "new era" of co-operation.
Behind the scenes, and speaking under conditions of anonymity, PMO advisers are a little more skeptical about premiers and provinces mixing it up with the federal government around election time. Logistically, it's pretty well unavoidable, given the way Martin's government has been blurring the lines and buying its way into traditionally provincial areas of authority.
"We are in an era of me-first provincialism," one said yesterday. "There's a lot of talk about who gets credit, the federal government or the provinces."
A notable exception, at least in the view of the PMO these days, is B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, the host of this weekend's aboriginal summit.
According to one adviser: "Gordon Campbell is the new Bill Davis" — referring to the former long-reigning premier of Ontario who used his position to be an honest broker for the entire federation.
Martin's advisers believe Campbell is one of the few premiers thinking beyond his own province's boundaries these days, though they also have credited Manitoba's Gary Doer and New Brunswick's Bernard Lord for occasional flashes of that attitude in the past.
with files from Robert Benzie,
Richard Brennan, CP
___________________________________________
if klein doesn't think he's good.. :eek