Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper used his press conference at the G8 meeting Friday to attack Liberal Party leader, Michael Ignatieff. Red-faced, Harper had to apologize to Ignatieff when it turned out a mistake had been made.
On Friday, the last day of the G8 summit, Stephen Harper embarrassed some Canadians and disconcerted others by verbally attacking Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff. Dimitri Soudos, Harper's press secretary, later took the blame for the incident, saying that he had passed on unverified information to Harper prior to the press conference. And the "information" in question?
This is what Harper
said at the press conference:
"If you don't mind giving me a moment to address the comments of Mr. Ignatieff. The leader of the opposition suggested very recently in the last day or two, I gather, that it's possible -- I’m not sure if he's saying it's desirable or should happen or could happen -- that there will be a group come to the fore, a group of major countries that will exclude Canada. I don't know where he's getting this idea. Nobody but Mr. Ignatieff in the world has suggested excluding Canada from a meeting of major countries. Nobody. It's the first anybody has heard of it. I think it's an irresponsible suggestion, Mr. Ignatieff is supposed to be a Canadian. I don't think you go out and float ideas like this that are so obviously contrary to the country's interests when no one else is advocating them. So I would suggest that he look carefully at his comments and withdraw those. Frankly they would be irresponsible coming from anybody but particularly irresponsible coming from a keen Canadian Parliamentarian."
As it turned out, the remarks that got Harper all fired up were actually made by a former Canadian foreign diplomat, now an
academic, Gordon Smith, who was making a point about the role of Canada in the world. According to the
Globe and Mail,
"The quote attributed to Mr. Ignatieff reads: “It is really important that Canada be on top [of] this because otherwise … somebody will come up with the idea of creating an entirely new group. A group that would certainly include key countries like China and India, but no particular reason why it would include Canada.”"
Harper also took a
shot at his appointed Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page, at Friday's press conference, saying
"We will not start raising taxes and cutting programs. That's a very dumb policy and, to the extent, frankly, that the parliamentary budget officer suggested it, it's a dumb position. It will not be the position of our government. We will not be raising the GST or any other tax during or after the recession."
Page recently completed a five year economic
forecast for Canada which will be released this coming week. In the report, Page pointed out miscalculations made by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Page said that the deficit will be bigger than predicted by the Conservative government, and it will also be permanent. He found that the Conservative prediction for the number of Canadians who will lose their jobs to the recession was too low. Page predicts that 1.2 million Canadians will lose their employment, and that job losses will continue into 2010. Page also said that the Conservative government was not spending enough in stimulus funding to help Canada turn its economic situation around. While the Harper government has been claiming that 80% of the committed stimulus funds have already been released in Canada, Page said that the stimulus funds were not getting out to Canadians. At the press conference on Friday, Harper admitted that the funds were not getting out,
saying "It's a reality that it is tough to get it out the door."
At the press conference in Italy, Harper also
said that the Conservative government will no longer keep to it's promise to balance the books by the year 2014, telling reporters,
"We will allow the deficit to persist if necessary," Harper said. "We will not, in order to meet some timetable, start raising taxes and cutting programs."
Harper has since apologized to Ignatieff for the accusations. In response, Ignatieff
said,
"I accept the Prime Minister's apology. It's unfortunate that these remarks have come at the end of the G8 meeting when Canada's efforts would have been better spent engaging with global leaders on shared issues."
In reaction to the attack on Ignatieff, Liberal Bob Rae told the press on Friday that Harper's
attack "... showed Harper's true character. I think all Canadians have to recognize that we have the smallest man on the world stage that it's possible to imagine, and that's Stephen Harper. He never misses an opportunity to stoop. Not to conquer, just to throw mud."
