Harper knows Canadians don’t want to bail out Europe

Canadians who’ve toured the sumptuous Vatican museums might have reservations about contributing to a fund for the Europeans.

Gilded frescoes, priceless tapestries, sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini — such things symbolize the bountiful and remarkable treasures of Europe.

For that matter, anyone who has window shopped on Rue Saint-Honore in Paris or visited the grand Staatsoper opera house in Vienna would be of like mind.

The notion that Canada should pony up for an International Monetary Fund cache to help indebted European countries is ridiculous.

G20 countries attending a meeting Monday in Los Cabos, Mexico, are expected to confirm new IMF commitments worth $430 billion for that purpose.

Stephen Harper will go empty-handed and wants to make sure Canadians know it. Both he and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are speaking out boldly in defence of Canada’s closed wallet.

It’s a position Canadians will appreciate.

Politically, of course, this is a winning posture for Conservatives keen to divert voters’ attention from what transpired this week in the House of Commons.

Opposition parties are delaying passage of the Conservatives’ omnibus budget bill by way of interminable votes on amendments, advanced mainly by Green party Leader Elizabeth May. They’re trying to highlight the Harper government’s lack of respect for democracy in ramming through Parliament, without due debate, a 425-page budget bill that rewrites some 70 federal laws.

Harper and Flaherty, meanwhile, are advertising the Europeans’ behaviour as an example of dithering, in stark contrast to swift, decisive legislative action by Canada’s own Conservatives.

“By continuing to soundly manage public finances, and by acting now to take con- trol of our future, Canada will continue . . . to lead by example,” the PM boasted earlier this week at an economic conference in Montreal, addressing the EU crisis. Both Canada and the U.S. — which is also refusing donations for Europe — are growing impatient with the Europeans, who have let their financial crisis drag on so long.

It’s clear a fiscal union is needed to support Europe’s monetary union, but Europeans lack the political will to act decisively.

Canadians remember the Chretien government’s “hell or high water” determination when Canada faced a debt wall.

Between 1995 and 1998, Liberals cut federal transfers to the provinces by 30 per cent. And they reduced social program spending, which represented 16 per cent of Canada’s GDP in 1990-91 and just 11.6 per cent of GDP 10 years later.

According to a 2001 Maastricht Graduate School of Governance study, social program spending represented 28 per cent of GDP in France, 24 per cent in Italy and 22 per cent in Portugal.

Spain, in dire straits, spent 11 million euros last year on a program called Europe Senior Tourism, offering financial subsidies to European seniors over 55 wishing to see sunshine and bullfighting in the off season.

In 2007, the Italian government acknowledged its hidden, untaxed economy accounted for 27 per cent of GDP.

“There isn’t much stigma to being a tax evader, in terms of condemnation; if you pay taxes you’re seen as being a bit thick in the head,” University of Milan professor Carlo Fiorio explained at the time to the New York Times.

London’s Telegraph is reporting that Greece is expected to lose 15 billion euros this year as a result of tax cheats.

According to research by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm, European workers get anywhere from 28 to 39 days of holiday annually. Canadians, after five years at a job, are lucky to qualify for 25.

No surprise, Harper’s insistence that there will be no Canadian cash for Europe is a winning message.