Home Page

PM and Premiers to Meet in Coming Days

Uncategorized Comments (0)

Reports today suggest Prime Minister Steven Harper may be planning a “rare meeting” with the provincial premiers to discuss globalization, competitiveness and the country’s economic union.

Now that’s a novel idea. A PM actually consulting with the nation’s premiers face to face.

The lunch time meeting, tentatively set for June 2, is intended to give the Prime Minister an opportunity to discuss some key issues before attending a G8 summit in Germany the next day.

I remember when the PM and the premiers used to hold what was referred to as “First Ministers Conferences”. How they used to talk about a number of issues over a period of days. How they tried to work together to resolve issues and find a way forward. Ahhhh, the good old days. Can it be that in Mr. Harper’s Canada a two hour lunch is considered good enough and is all the time he can spare for the premiers?

Not much is likely to be accomplished at the meeting, if it even goes ahead, especially when you consider that one of the topics of discussion is the “country’s economic union”. In light of the fact that premier’s Williams – NL, Calvert – SK, McDonald – NS, Graham – NB and Campbell – BC are all more than a little upset about where the country is heading on that front, the conversation may be a little colourful to say the least.

According to reports, the meeting will be held behind closed doors (no kidding). I’m sure more than one Atlantic Canadian would love to be a fly on the wall during that little chat.

All kidding aside though, if the PM is actually willing to sit down with the premier’s for a couple of hours this might be a good time to make some sort of move to help resolve the standoff over equalization and the clearly significant problems contained in the new federal budget.

Let’s face it someone has to make the first move. The provinces affected are suffering the ill will of Ottawa on a daily basis and the conservative MPs from those provinces have a noose tightening around their necks more with each passing day. Even if Harper manages to build a little more support in Quebec before the next election, it won’t do him much good if he loses 15 or 16 seats as a result of the budget fiasco.

I’m not saying it’s time for the premiers to buckle on this, hell no. The pressure is on both levels of government at this point. What I’m saying is that a dialogue needs to start and a solution needs to be found that will satisfy the provinces affected while letting the provincial leaders and the PM save face in the public arena.

It’s already too late to save the careers of many Atlantic and Saskatchewan MPs. Those folks are little more than road kill at this point, but it may not be too late to mend some fences between the levels of government and find a way forward.

It won’t be an easy task, not by a long shot, and certainly not something that can be accomplished over a lunch time meeting. Perhaps however this rare face to face, closed door discussion, can serve as a starting point for both sides to make some moves that will allow them to find a workable solution.

Now all someone has to do is convince Steve to actually invite Danny to the luncheon so they can try to bury the hatchet and work this out.

By the way, when I say “bury the hatchet” I mean that in the best possible way but just in case, could someone please hide the knives and forks?

By Myles Higgins

@ May 16, 2007