Harper and Marois to meet face to face – in Africa
Leaders downplay any chances of domestic disputes
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Pauline Marois are both suggesting they hope to leave domestic disputes at home during their first face-to-face meeting in Africa next week.
While they spoke on the phone right after Marois’s Parti Québécois was elected to lead a minority government in September, the timing of an upcoming summit of French-speaking countries, means they will cross paths in person, along with New Brunswick Premier David Alward, from Oct. 12 to 14 in Congo.
“I expect that the prime minister would meet with the provincial premiers who will be attending, just as he does at each summit of la Francophonie,” said Harper’s spokesman, Carl Vallee. “In this context, the topics of discussion would be on themes related to la Francophonie.”
Marois has pledged to lead a sovereignist government that will seek new powers for Quebec from the federal government, but her office said she wasn’t planning to raise these issues at the summit in Kinshasa, on the international stage.
“We will talk about international relations and (related) issues but we aren’t going to arrive there with a grocery list (of demands),” Marois’s press secretary, Marie Barrette said. “It’s not the right place for that.”
The three governments are among 75 members of la Francophonie, which traditionally meets every two years to promote common interests, ending summits with joint commitments on a wide range of issues, such as language, equality, as well as sustainable development and climate change.
Alward, the premier of Canada’s only bilingual province, told Postmedia News that New Brunswick valued its partnerships throughout la Francophonie and wanted the upcoming summit to promote economic opportunities by focusing on issues such as governance, youth, education, innovation, and the environment.
“The vitality of la Francophonie and the advancement of democracy depend first and foremost on the access that our young people have to quality education,” Alward said in a statement. “Training, education, and innovation are critical to the social and economic progress of our communities here in New Brunswick and throughout la Francophonie.”
Antonia Maioni, an associate professor and political scientist from McGill University, said Marois would also have an opportunity at the summit to showcase a traditional argument of the Parti Québécois that an independent Quebec could serve as a positive influence.
NDP critic for la Francophonie, Pierre Dionne Labelle, said Harper would have his work cut out for him at the summit following a series of decisions over the past year that have allegedly minimized the importance of French in Canada, including budget cuts affecting some French-language services as well as the appointments of unilingual anglophones to key positions such as the auditor general.