CANADA PM SAYS RIVAL’S GREEN PLAN THREATENS UNITY
09.12.08 - Leído 20 veces. Enviar esta notaDavid Ljunggren
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stepped up his campaign on Thursday against a carbon tax proposed by his chief rival to reduce greenhouse emissions, saying it would weaken national unity in a country battered by years of fights with separatists in Quebec
OTTAWA, Canada; September 12, 2008.- Harper, whose Conservatives are well ahead of the official opposition Liberals in the polls in the run-up to a general election on Oct 14, said the tax would undoubtedly cause a recession.
“If a government spends billions of dollars and tries to fund it through a new tax, the results for the economy will be disastrous — disastrous. For national unity, I’d say the same thing,” he told a televised news conference.
Harper made his comments in the French-speaking province of Quebec, where secessionist forces have been trying for several decades to break away from the rest of Canada.
The tax on carbon emissions, which have been blamed for global warming, is the brainchild of Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who says the measure would cut emissions while remaining revenue-neutral. Harper says the tax is needed to fund what he describes massive new Liberal spending plans.
Dion says he would offset the carbon tax with income tax cuts and higher subsidies to the poor. His plan would boost taxes on most fuels, with the exception of gasoline.
Harper’s latest accusation against Dion may not make much headway with with voters, since Dion is the man who in 2000 pushed through legislation making it more difficult for provinces to secede from the Canadian federation.
“I do not need any lessons from Stephen Harper on fighting for the national unity of my country … It is completely irresponsible for (him) to do this,” Dion responded. Polls show support for independence in Quebec is on the wane.
The Conservatives only have a minority of the 308 seats in the federal Parliament and are aiming to win more in the October election at the expense of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which holds 48 of Quebec’s 75 seats.
Harper is stressing he favors looser ties between Ottawa and the provinces in a bid to gain the support of sovereigntists, the soft Quebec nationalists who vote for the Bloc because they want more powers for their province without necessarily backing full independence.
“If a Liberal government wants to get all the money in Ottawa through a centralizing policy such as a carbon tax, well of course sovereigntists are going to be rubbing their hands in glee, because once again we’ll have the old squabbles of yesteryear and debates on national unity,” he said.
Separatist governments in Quebec held failed referendums on independence in 1980 and 1995. Dion, then Liberal minister in charge of ties with the provinces, subsequently drew up the law making it harder for Quebec to break away.
Harper’s main message to the electorate is that the carbon tax would be far too risky at a time when the Canadian economy is struggling to cope with the downturn in the United States.
(Reuters)
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