The Immaturity Of Stephen Harper
Welcome to Canada, 2011.
"OTTAWA— Stephen Harper has been saying that co-operation in Parliament could avert an election in the near future, but the opposition leaders say the Prime Minister doesn’t seem interested in seeking any help in keeping his government afloat.
While Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was calling Harper the “Home Alone” Prime Minister in a speech on Tuesday, NDP Leader Jack Layton said he’s wondering why a politician who wants co-operation would release negative TV advertisements, attacking the people he says he wants to work with.
“It takes a pretty peculiar psychology to think that that makes sense,” Layton said in an interview from Nova Scotia, where he finished a nationwide tour before heading back to Ottawa for the NDP caucus retreat.
Liberal officials said Harper has only consulted Ignatieff a couple of times in the past two years, and they do not expect any conversations leading up to the reopening of Parliament next week or the budget, expected in late March.
Layton said he last spoke with Harper over the phone on Dec. 17, when the prime minister expressed an interest in following up to discuss what the NDP would want to see in the budget.
Layton has not put in a request to speak to Harper because it was the prime minister who asked him first.
“He knows where to find me,” Layton said. “Anytime he wants to talk to me, I’ve always been available.”
That meeting has yet to happen and the Chronicle-Herald reported Tuesday that Harper spokesman Andrew MacDougall said meeting Layton is unnecessary because the Conservative government is already aware of his demands."
The Star
