"It's not the responsibility of the federal government to tax Canadians in order to fund provincial programs that provinces choose to conduct," he told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
"That's their jurisdiction."
In other words, if the provinces think they need more money, they can raise their own damn taxes, thanks very much! Not surprisingly, Quebec Premier Jean Charest is not impressed:
"When Mr. Harper said, 'I'm going to fix the fiscal imbalance,' he never said, 'I'm going to fix it by asking the provinces to increase taxes,'" Charest said.
"And when he said, 'I'm going to reduce the GST,' he never said, 'I want the provincial governments to come in and take up the extra percent[age point].'"
There will be two more or less immediate results of this back-down.
The good news is, Harper has thrown away his majority, or at least will have to find a way to it through a route other than La belle Province. Quebecers did not give the CPC the seats they did because they saw this overweight, charisma-free, far right economist from Alberta and fell in love. No, those ridings were purchased with monies promised from the fiscal imbalance. Now Harper has come to town for St. Jean Baptiste Day, eaten a bunch of barbecue hot-dogs, and left without paying!
The bad news, as noted briefly above, is that the latest polls out of Quebec have shown Charest's Liberals ahead of or at least within shouting distance of their PQ opponents, and this gives the opposition yet another cudgel to pummel the provincial government with: can anyone say "betrayal"?
3 comments:
pathetic attempt at writing a smear.
Typical Liberal . . . piss-poor at everything, including communications.
nicely put. i liked the bit about skipping out on his hot dog tab the best. shaky start to the summer for harper. blowing off fiscal imbalance and 2 million bucks in cpc party coffers that shouldn't be there......
One really has to wonder about the contempt Harper is showing voters, in all parts of the country. From saying voters don't understand some matters and so need not have them discussed by the Prime Minister, to trying to bribe voters in Quebec with baubles ($100 taxable child care payments, instead of a proper, sustainable child care program; a cut in sales tax combined with corporate tax giveaways), he has clearly indicated his low opinion of citizens.
And yet he seems to think people have faulty memories and will forget his clumsy tactics come election time ...
Sorry, Stephen: Canadians have long memories.
And little time for buffoons.
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