The government will “take steps to strengthen further Canada’s francophone identity.” It will support “the establishment of a National Monument to the Victims of Communism and it will support legislation to establish a national Holocaust memorial.” It will “continue to map our northern resources and waters.” It will “bolster its Action Plan on Clean Water.”
The Harper government will “advocate greater investment in maternal and child health in developing countries.” A day later, it announced it will cap Canada’s contribution to international development assistance. Everyone looks forward to learning which country will make the greater investment the Harper government will advocate.
“Nowhere,” the Throne Speech intones, “is a commitment to principled policy, backed by action, needed more than in addressing climate change.” There is no truth to the rumour that the PMO sought to shorten this sentence, in the interests of clarity and focus, to: “Nowhere is a commitment to principled policy, backed by action, needed.”
How shall we back our commitment to principled policy, here where it is needed more than anywhere, with action? The answer came in the following day’s budget: “Responsibility for conducting environmental assessments for energy projects will be delegated from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to the National Energy Board.” That’ll keep those pesky environmentalists away from the environment! Just as we will keep Canadian aid dollars away from aid, gender neutrality away from the anthem, and free trade away from our farmers. Upon these rocks of clarity and focus will we build our church.
It is easy to mock a government for having lots of priorities. There’s ample precedent. In 2003, Paul Martin said, “I want to lead a new government with a renewed sense of purpose, and a sharper focus and a clearer plan.” Months later, Martin was bringing down budgets stuffed like Christmas geese, with $175 million to “help renew Marine Atlantic’s fleet and shore facilities” and $50.5 million to “the Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated” and launching “a comprehensive review of [the government’s] current approach to financing First Nations infrastructure.”
Just kidding! No, the money for Marine Atlantic, the Montreal bridges, and the Aboriginal infrastructure review was all in this month’s clear, focused 2010 Stephen Harper budget, not in the sharper-focused, clearer-planning Martin budgets of yore. But it’s easy to get confused.
Harper prorogued Parliament in December because, he said, he needed a couple of months of focus and clarity to prepare Canada for the epochal challenges ahead. On many recent nights, a pedestrian passing the Langevin Block on Ottawa’s downtown Wellington Street would pass the Prime Minister’s parked and waiting motorcade as Harper stayed at the office late into the evening. Now more than at any time since he got this job, Harper carries the weight of his entire government on his shoulders. And it is grinding him into a rut.
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