To the Editor:
Probably the biggest news yesterday was NOT Stephen Harper's 7,000-word Speech from the Throne which turned into an incoherent hodge-podge of disparate bits-and-pieces with no compelling sense of purpose or vision.
No, the big news was that Mr. Harper is skipping town today for the rest of this week, again missing his duty to answer to Canadians in the Daily Question Period in the House of Commons.
After the $90,000 Wright-Duffy scandal engulfed his office in a police investigation last spring, Mr. Harper has been mostly absent from Parliament. He attended only five Question Periods in the five weeks before the House adjourned in June for its regular summer break. Then with sittings due to resume in September (after a three-month recess), he again resorted to "prorogation" to avoid accountability for another four-and-a-half weeks.
Finally, yesterday's re-opening of Parliament was supposed to signal the end of his stonewalling. But it just continued the circus.
Nothing in the Throne Speech answers a single question about the Harper government's ethical failings. There is no sign of contrition. No acknowledgement of responsibility. No transparency. No accountability. And adding insult to injury, Mr. Harper now slips out of town.
Meanwhile, Mr. Harper's droning Throne Speech also failed to address his government's most persistent problem (apart from ethics), and that is their dismal record on economic growth. No Prime Minister since R.B. Bennett has done worse.
At the same time, Mr. Harper talks about imposing "balanced budget legislation", which several provinces have already tried with no sign of success. But worse still is the hypocrisy.
Mr. Harper is the one who squandered a decade of balanced budgets. He is the one who blew $13-billion in annual surpluses. He is the one who eliminated all fiscal shock-absorbers from federal budget-making. He is the one who overspent by three-times the rate of inflation and put the country into a structural deficit BEFORE the recession arrived in late 2008.
Mr. Harper is the one who has delivered six consecutive deficit budgets and is adding $169-billion to Canada's federal debt while, at the same time, increasing the net tax burden on Canadians in each of the last four years.
As they pay only the most meager of lip-service to the needs of so many middle-class Canadians whose real incomes are stagnant and vulnerable, the Harper Conservatives are in no position to offer any lectures on fiscal responsibility or good management.
Their record is one of disappointment and mediocrity.
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
