New respect for Prime Minister Harper in Quebec

'Open federalism' well received

Graeme Hamilton, National PostPublished: Friday, April 21, 2006

MONTREAL - Just over a year ago, Stephen Harper came to Montreal's Palais des congres on what seemed a noble but doomed mission to sell his new Conservative party to Quebecers. The antagonism was palpable during the party's inaugural policy convention here in March, 2005, and that was coming from the party's own Quebec delegates.

"Quite clearly, the Conservative party has a lot of catching up to do before it will be presentable in Quebec," Chantal Hebert concluded in Le Devoir.
Yesterday, Mr. Harper was back in the same building, and not only was he presentable, leading Quebecers were tripping over themselves to sing his praises.

Benoit Pelletier, Quebec's Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, was overjoyed by Mr. Harper's proposal of an "open federalism" that would keep Ottawa's nose out of the province's jurisdiction.

"What is new and what is fresh is that there is a real will to accommodate Quebec's specificity within Canada," Mr. Pelletier told reporters after the speech.

Mario Dumont, the leader of the Action Democratique du Quebec, who was given a seat at the head table yesterday, welcomed Mr. Harper's call for a stronger Quebec in a better Canada. "With his strength of character, his desire to do things differently, Mr. Harper is opening the door wide for Quebecers," he said.

Getting elected prime minister tends to increase public interest in one's pronouncements, but yesterday's speech before the Montreal Board of Trade drew far more than the curious. A Board of Trade official said the 1,900 tickets sold were the most for a Board event since Pierre Trudeau visited in 1980.

The size of the crowd and the ovation they gave him suggests Mr. Harper is onto something when he says Quebecers thirst for a new age in politics. "They want to turn the page and leave the era of political polarization," he said.
As he did during the recent election campaign, he positioned his Conservatives as the party that can break the impasse between the separatist Bloc Quebecois and the "centralizing" federal Liberals, who until recently had a stranglehold on federalist votes in the province.

Quebec complains of a fiscal imbalance that gives Ottawa too much spending power at the provinces' expense? The Conservatives feel its pain and will tackle the problem. "Fiscal imbalance impacts almost all Canadian provinces and municipalities, and it is a threat to the proper functioning of the Canadian federation," Mr. Harper said. At a news conference, he specified that he expects to make progress on fiscal imbalance before the end of the year.

Quebec feels its interests are not being adequately defended in international forums? Mr. Harper said "common sense" dictates that Quebec should have an enhanced role in UNESCO, "an organization where its unique linguistic and cultural concerns may be at stake."

"That is what open federalism is all about -- a stronger Quebec in a better Canada, and that is what this new national government intends to deliver."
The speech was Mr. Harper's first major public event in Quebec since the Jan. 23 election, but he has hardly been neglecting the province. He has already met three times with Jean Charest, the Premier. He named five Quebecers to his Cabinet, even taking the political risk of naming unelected party organizer Michael Fortier to the Senate so he could be sworn in as Minister of Public Works and give Montreal Cabinet representation.

The attention lavished on Quebec has ruffled feathers in other provinces, and Mr. Harper made a point of saying he is not playing favourites. "The time has come to establish new relations with the provinces, open, honest and respectful relations," he said.

Still, the partisan attacks on the Liberals and Bloc peppered through yesterday's speech indicate that Mr. Harper has more than nation-building in mind. He described the Conservative breakthrough in the election, winning 10 Quebec seats, as "the biggest story of the evening on Jan. 23." He knows his best hope of transforming his minority government into a majority lies here in Quebec. For that reason, he made a point of introducing the nine Quebec MPs and Cabinet ministers on hand for the speech, in-the-flesh evidence that the Conservatives have caught up in a hurry.

© National Post 2006

Michael McCafferty comments:
It is wonderful that Prime Minister Harper has earned the respect and trust that he has in the Province of Quebec. It is absolutely wonderful.