‘It’s what we were elected to do,’ Fletcher says

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/06/2011 (5469 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A 21-year-old Parliamentary page injected the only element of surprise into an otherwise par for the course throne speech in Ottawa Friday.

The first blueprint of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new majority government was laden with items he has been promising to do for years but hasn’t had the votes in the Commons to do until now.

Among them are eliminating the gun registry, reforming the Senate with term limits and elections, and ending the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board, both issues that will resonate loudly, for good or bad, among prairie voters. The Harper plan also pledges to phase out the per-vote subsidies to political parties over the next three years.

The speech was focused largely on the economy, including investments in research and development for the private sector, a harmonized sales tax with Quebec by the fall, new trade agreements with Europe and India and eliminating the deficit by 2015.

Manitoba junior cabinet minister Steven Fletcher said the speech had no surprises.

“It’s what we were elected to do,” he said. “I think Canadians will be very pleased.”

The one surprise was the sudden protest of Senate page Brigette DePape.

DePape, who has worked in the senate as a page for the past year, used her access to the upper chamber during the reading of the throne speech to stand in a plum post behind the supreme court justices and hold up a red stop-sign shaped sign reading “Stop Harper.”

Her stunt did not disrupt Gov. Gen. David Johnston’s reading of the speech.

Opposition parties are miffed by the elimination of the per vote subsidy and the gun registry but seem more resigned to their disappearance in the era of Harper majority. But NDP Wheat Board critic Pat Martin said there will still be a fight to save the Wheat Board monopoly that could go all the way to the Supreme Court.

He said the legislation that created the Canadian Wheat Board clearly requires a referendum of farmers to change the monopoly. While the government contends the recent election was a referendum on the issue, Martin said that’s simply not going to hold up.

“If they are serious about giving farmers a choice they should put it to a vote,” he said.

Martin said it was fitting that the Wheat Board monopoly came up on page 13 of the throne speech because “it’s unlucky for the prairies.”

“That one little sentence is going to single-handedly eat the heart out of the prairie economy,” said Martin.

Fletcher shrugged off the criticism saying prairie farmers voted overwhelmingly for Conservatives.

“If you look at the ridings where the Wheat Board plays a role, every single one of them is Conservative,” said Fletcher.

The government also made a brief and vague mention to “promote access to clean water” on reserves.

Fletcher wouldn’t directly say whether that means the government will invest in infrastructure needed to bring safe and clean running water to northern reserves in Manitoba.

“It means the proper solutions will be there for communities that are affected,” said Fletcher.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca