Economy comes first: Harper
Published Wednesday October 15th, 2008
CALGARY - A newly elected Stephen Harper indicated he will push some of his more controversial ideas toward the back burner as he works with opposition parties to keep Parliament focused on the economy.
The prime minister seemed to offer an olive branch to the opposition, striking a different tone from his first mandate in which he used the cudgel of confidence votes to bludgeon them into compliance.
He suggested he's ready to meet opposition leaders to discuss economic issues
Instead of threatening to press hard on Senate reform and crime legislation - as he did in the last Parliament - he described them as less urgent priorities.
Those are perhaps the two issues that most threaten to put his Conservatives at odds with their opponents. But Harper expressed little appetite for a fight.
He downplayed a question about his campaign promise to treat young offenders as adults - a plan that could create life sentences for children as young as 14.
He said if his plan to introduce Senate elections is blocked, he'll simply appoint senators to help balance the present lop-sided Liberal control of the upper house. The Liberals hold 59 of the 105 seats and there are 16 vacant seats.
What he will not do is insist on an elected Senate against the objections of all three opposition parties and several provincial governments
Harper named only one senator in his first mandate, when he appointed Michael Fortier to make him eligible to sit in cabinet. Fortier resigned his seat to run in Tuesday's the election, but lost.
The prime minister said he won't appoint another minister from Montreal, but said he'd designate a minister responsible for the city.
And he suggested he'll be less likely to threaten a new election over legislation, as he did repeatedly in the last Parliament.
"The last thing I want to talk about today is another election," the prime minister told a news conference.
"Since I returned to public life a little over seven years ago I've literally done nothing but campaign."
Since 2001 he's fought three national elections, two leadership races - with the Canadian Alliance and the new Conservative party - and four lopsided riding battles.
A conciliatory tone pervaded his news conference.
He did not sound like a man expecting to get his way on every issue and repeatedly spoke of his desire to work with others. It was an echo of his election-night victory speech.
"It still is a minority Parliament - so we do want to hear what the other parties have to say. We will take their views into account," Harper said.
"My commitment to the opposition leaders is to try and find some common ground to move the Parliament forward more productively. Because I know nobody wants to talk about another election right now."
When asked whether he'd hold a grudge against Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, who effectively shut him out of the province with an "anybody-but-Conservative" campaign, he said: "I have no trouble saying, '(Let) bygones be bygones.'
"I've constructed an entire party out of people who once opposed me."
When asked about his law-and-order agenda - something so central to his last mandate that he repeatedly threatened to use confidence votes to get things passed - he discussed the economy.
"No. 1 priority is going to have to be the economy," he said.
"Obviously there will be legislation in other areas. But our focus will be on the economy."
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