Harper Index
BY Matthew Elliot
Photography by Reuters: Chris Wattie
After an unusually eventful summer break, the fall session of Parliament began on September 18, with Stephen Harper and his minority Conservative government continuing to lose support for its mission in Afghanistan and lack of an environmental plan.
August 12, 2006 PM announces plans to purchase unmanned surveillance planes to patrol the Arctic, telling a Nunavut audience that a “government’s first obligation is to defend the territorial integrity of its borders.”
August 16 Environment Minister Rona Ambrose issues press release in response to a petition by environmental groups stating the northern spotted owl “does not currently face imminent threats to its survival.” There are an estimated 17 owls remaining in Canada.
August 22 Parliamentary Secretary to the PM Jason Kenney compares negotiating with Hezbollah to negotiating with the Nazis in an Ottawa news conference; Harper later says he considers the comparison “not unfair.”
August 22 Harper gives two CanWest newspapers exclusive interviews on softwood lumber deal with US after the news chain agrees to go on the PMO’s news conference list, which had been boycotted by the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
August 31 PM announces $101 million in spending to hire an additional 400 border guards and provide them with unprecedented side-arms.
September 2 The Globe and Mail reports Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor’s desire to have Canadian troops stationed in Pakistan to join local armed forces in fighting the Taliban.
September 7 O’Connor tells Reuters news service in Australia that Canadian troops in Afghanistan “cannot eliminate the Taliban, not militarily anyway.”
September 12 to 14 O’Connor and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day reportedly attend private conference on North American security and prosperity in Banff, Alberta along with government officials, corporate executives and members of the military establishment from Canada, the US and Mexico.
September 18 Le Journal de Montréal reports 30 former Conservative staffers-turned-lobbyists for the Alberta oil patch have accumulated 327 contracts to lobby the federal government since the regime took office in February.
September 18 Government rejects Bloc Québécois calls for an emergency debate in the House on Ottawa’s foreign affairs policies, including Canada’s role in Afghanistan and the Darfur crisis.
September 20 Harper appoints Justice David Brown to the Ontario Superior Court; Toronto lawyer Brown has argued against the constitutionality of same-sex marriage and defended anti-abortion demonstrators.
September 21 Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart launches investigation to determine whether government officials violated the Privacy Act by disclosing the identity of a journalist who filed an access to information request with the feds.
September 25 Tories announce $2 billion in cuts and “tighter management” measures including substantial cuts to Aboriginal programs, women’s groups, initiatives for people with disabilities, youth and volunteer programs, literacy projects and the total elimination of the Court Challenges Program — despite a $13 billion surplus largely accrued by the former Liberal government.
