Harper: Promises Made, Promises Broken

Keeping Track, First of A Series

Promise #1: Harper has never supported an appointed Senate, instead is a long time proponent of the Reform Party call for an elected senate, the so-called triple E senate. During the last election campaign, only days before the vote, Harper re-iterated a promise to Montrealers in a french-language televised interview:

Q: What if your party is unsuccessful in electing members from the Montreal area? What will you do? Will you appoint someone to cabinet to represent Montreal?

Stephen Harper: “No – I’ve always believed that cabinet positions should only be filled from the ranks of elected parliamentarians.” Details

Promise #1: Broken – on February 6th Harper appointed the unelected Michael Fortier, a long-time supporter of Mr. Harper, to cabinet. Fortier had not even run in the election, bluntly telling reporters that he “didn’t want to”.

Promise #2: Stephen Harper has always asserted that the unelected Senator he appointed to cabinet, Michael Fortier, would resign and run for a House of Commons seat in the very next election. In testimony before a Senate committee on September 7, 2006, Harper reiterated this promise:

this senator [Michael Fortier] will leave his seat at the next election to obtain a seat in the House of Commons. Stephen Harper, testifying before a Senate Committee

Promise #2 broken: Despite a Montreal-area riding now available for Michael Fortier to run in, he has not resigned his seat in the Senate and is not running for office in the election to be held on November 27 of this year.

Promise #3: During the last federal election, and in the months and years leading up to the campaign, Stephen Harper and other representatives of the Conservative Party repeatedly promised Canadians that they would not tax income trusts, instead favouring corporate tax reforms to level the playing field. The issue of income trusts became a significant election issue, where Harper continually hammered the Liberals, painting them as likely to tax trusts.

Promise #3 broken: After financial markets closed on October 31 2006, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that the Harper government would indeed tax income trusts. In Question Period the next day, Harper, as part of an attempt to soften the political fall out, portrays the Conservative campaign promises as having been made only to seniors. This is disingenous in the extreme and offensive to small and large Canadian and foreign investors alike.

On Friday November 10th, Democracy Watch filed a complaint about these broken promises with the federal Ethics Commissioner, specifically naming Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty in the complaint.