Report From Parliament's Hill: October 4th

By Prince George - Peace River M.P. Jay Hill

    
So Much More to Do in Ottawa

One of the latest conspiracy theories being bantered about by the political pundits is that our Conservative minority government is intentionally setting ourselves up to fall.

According to this theory, Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to prompt an election in the hope of securing a majority government.  They allege we will make our Speech from the Throne later this month so unpalatable for the opposition parties that they will have no choice but to vote against it, triggering the fall of our minority government.

Where this ‘theory’ fails the credibility test is in the fact that our Conservative Government has been moving ‘full steam ahead’ on tough policies and decisions, as well as new legislation we want to put before the House of Commons this fall.

Plus, we certainly haven’t been acting anything like previous Liberal governments did when they were convinced they were heading into elections.  They spent tax dollars at a dizzying rate in an advance attempt to buy votes. 

In contrast, it was confirmed last week that the government of Stephan Harper has made one of the largest national debt reduction payments in Canadian history with $14.2-billion in 2006-07.  Added to our debt payment from last year, the Conservative Government has reduced our nation’s debt by a total of $27.4-billion in just two years!

It’s highly ironic that the same critics who accuse of us conspiring to trigger an election and who also condemned us for spending too much in Budget 2007, now attack us for paying down our nation’s debt at an unprecedented rate.  The NDP says we should have found ways to spend that money.  Meanwhile, the Liberals must be perplexed …they wouldn’t dream of passing up the chance to hand out pre-election goodies if there was even a remote threat of an election.

After more than twelve years of frustration on the opposition benches, witnessing the mismanagement of our nation’s finances, healthcare, justice and democratic systems, infrastructure and social programs, our Conservative Government has no time to waste on pre-election posturing.  We waited long enough for the chance to implement the fundamental policies and legislation we believe will build a stronger, better Canada.  We need to get it done whether there’s an election now or on October 19, 2009, as deemed by our fixed election date bill.

Take debt reduction for instance.  Once of the main reasons I entered politics was to ensure that our children and grandchildren are not saddled with a massive national debt and I’m thrilled at our phenomenal progress in paying it down.

Each and every day we are drafting new important legislation we intend to introduce in the House of Commons later this month.  This week, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson released draft legislation to combat the very serious and growing problem of identity theft.  And Finance Minister Jim Flaherty released draft legislation to implement Registered Disability Savings Plans so that Canadians with disabilities will have access to improved financial support.

While the opposition parties are fretting over election timing, our Conservative Government is getting things done for the Canadians who elected us to govern.

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