Harper retooling for 2015 election
First up on his agenda is slaying $18B budget deficit, insiders say
OTTAWA— Prime Minister Stephen Harper will use the extra time before Parliament reopens to work up a set of priorities to carry the Conservatives into the 2015 election. But it is shaping up as a cut-rate agenda focused around cutting Ottawa’s $18-billion budget deficit.
By closing down Parliament and opening a new session in the second half of October, Harper can use the traditional speech from the throne to showcase the government’s legislative plans for the second half of its majority mandate.
But insiders stress that eliminating the budget deficit in time for the next election is crucial. Before the 2011vote, Harper promised a raft of popular tax breaks — all contingent on balancing the books.
Failure to fulfil these pledges might incite voters’ wrath, meaning fresh initiatives that involve significant spending by Ottawa are doubtful in the next two years.
Harper says the economy will remain the Tories’ prime focus.
But Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is expected to follow up the throne speech with a budget next winter that will be a steady-as-she-goes strategy to keep spending in check. Putting off the end of Parliament’s summer break to late October will also spare Harper a month or so of being hammered daily in the Commons over the Senate spending outrages.
It’s not unusual for governments to briefly close the House of Commons and Senate to recast their legislative agenda. But opposition parties are accusing Harper of dodging accountability on the Senate scandal and other issues.
“Mr. Harper did two things yesterday: he prorogued, but he also decided that
“Mr. Harper has gone into hiding.” THOMAS MULCAIR NDP LEADER
Parliament wasn’t coming back, so the people who have been elected and put there to ask questions on your behalf and on behalf of all Canadians, won’t be able to do it because Mr. Harper has gone into hiding,” NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair told reporters in Montreal on Tuesday. “That’s certainly not a way to behave in a democracy.” With files from Tonda MacCharles