Harper Index
BY Matthew Elliot
Photography by Reuters: Chris Wattie
Stephen Harper’s government didn’t consult with opposition parties before unveiling its environmental plan last fall that featured long-term “intensity-based” greenhouse gas emissions targets. The Clean Air Act was panned by critics for its lack of urgency and as yet another example of the Tories governing as if they were a majority. —Matthew Elliot
September 27, 2006 Environment Minister Rona Ambrose appoints Darrel Reid as her chief-of-staff. Reid is former president of social-conservative group Focus on the Family Canada, and has almost no environmental background.
October 12 Harper tells a Toronto audience that the major contenders for the Liberal leadership hold an “anti-Israel” position.
October 17 Justice Minister Vic Toews introduces “three strikes and you’re out” reverse-onus gun crime legislation, similar to measures used in the U.S. that have proven ineffective.
October 18 Halton, Ontario, MP Garth Turner is ejected from the Conservative caucus for criticizing the Tories on his blog.
October 19 Government tables long-awaited environmental plan to replace Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol; the bill is effectively dead in the water, as no opposition parties support it.
October 19 Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay refers to Liberal MP Belinda Stronach as a dog during Question Period; MacKay denies the remark.
October 31 Finance Minister Jim Flaherty imposes new taxes on incomes trusts, breaking a key Tory election promise.
October 31 Global warming skeptic Christopher Essex named to the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
November 10 Toews moves to change the process by which federal judges are chosen; Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, the Canadian Judicial Council, the Canadian Bar Association, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the Criminal Lawyers’ Association and the Advocates’ Society want debate on the plan that would see federally appointed police reps sit on judicial advisory committees.
November 17 to 19 Harper bars reporters from covering his appearances at the APEC meeting in Hanoi, leaving the Canadian press to fill in the blanks regarding a one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
November 27 Unelected Public Works Minister Michael Fortier does not run for a seat in the House of Commons in either of two federal by-elections, after rejecting opposition calls in September to enter the race.
