So much for the January Winter blahs.  I have had a very busy, productive and engaging month meeting with individuals, businesses, and industry and employee groups keen to contribute their ideas for a prosperous future for British Columbia and Canada.  Plus, this past week brought welcome news on a variety of fronts.

 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that Canada’s economic growth will be at the head of the G7 in 2010 and 2011.  It says that in 2011 Canada will lead ALL G7 countries.

 

The IMF says stimulus efforts by governments, including those implemented by our Conservative Government here in Canada, are “driving the global rebound” and recommends that “the fiscal stimulus planned for 2010 should be fully implemented”.

 

This reaffirms that Canada’s Economic Action Plan is helping to stabilize the economy and is enabling Canada to weather the current global economic challenges better than nearly every other industrialized country!  Welcome news indeed for Canadians.

 

However, celebration is pre-mature.  We’re not out of the woods yet and our government won’t be satisfied that we’re on the road to recovery until we’ve recouped the job losses we’ve incurred through this global crisis.

 

As we enter Phase 2 of the Economic Action Plan, we WILL continue to roll out the remaining stimulus projects.  However, we are also planning for deficit reduction once the economy has recovered, and we’re building a strong foundation for job creation and economic growth.

In other news, the well-publicized court case between Elections Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada finally came to a merciful end.  The Conservative Party won a decisive victory in a Federal Court over Elections Canada regarding election advertising expenses from the 2006 federal election.  You recall it was dubbed the “in and out” advertising scandal by the national media.

 

The court ruled that these advertising expenses claimed by 67 Conservative candidates, including me, were legitimate and ordered Elections Canada to certify those expenses.  This confirms our party’s firm belief that we’ve always adhered to Canada’s elections law in our campaign advertising.

 

And in another courtroom over the past week, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the Canadian Wheat Board’s case against our Conservative Government.  It upheld the Federal Court of Appeal’s earlier ruling that the government was well within its rights to direct the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) to not spend farmers’ hard-earned money on pro-Wheat Board propaganda.

 

What’s more, it was a decision to dismiss “with costs”.  So now the CWB will now have to explain why it spent western farmers’ hard-earned money employing a team of high-priced lawyers for over three years on a frivolous case.

 

The Conservative Government has always maintained that the CWB should stick to its mandate of marketing grain.  It should NOT spend farmer’s money on lobbying farmers for its political purposes.

 

This coming week I am looking forward to attending events, meetings and announcements, including Olympic Torch celebrations, in communities right across our huge riding. And throughout the next month I will continue, like the rest of my Cabinet and caucus colleagues, to consult with Canadians on YOUR priorities.