XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, qc.politique 
 XPost: ab.politics, van.general 
 From: joeoreo@shaw.ca 
  
 Lots of Harper talk, not much walk 
  
 DEREK DeCLOET 
  
 ddecloet@globeandmail.com 
  
 September 13, 2008 
  
 Stephen Harper was more fun when he was scary. He was more interesting back 
 in the days when the Liberals would slap nasty labels on him, and they'd 
 stick. Harper the Reform Party revolutionary. Harper the Mulroney clone. 
 Harper the meanie who said Atlantic Canadians suffered from a "culture of 
 defeat." Harper the neo-con Wall Street suck-up. Mike Harris in a cowboy 
 hat 
 and leather vest. 
  
 It made for good copy, if lousy electoral politics. Then he had to ruin it 
 by 
 going all soft and fuzzy, with the sweaters and the photo ops of him 
 reading 
 Curious George Rides a Bike to young children. How scary can a guy be when 
 he's dressed out of a J. Crew catalogue? Oh, and then there's the matter of 
 policy. It's not so scary any more, either. 
  
 Take the Prime Minister's speech on foreign investment. Before an audience 
 of 
 recovering defeatists in Halifax yesterday, Mr. Harper said: "We are a 
 party 
 of free enterprise, free markets and free trade," while defining how little 
 that actually means. 
  
 The Conservatives, he said, would open Canada's airline industry up to 
 foreign money, sort of. They'd raise the foreign ownership limit on air 
 carriers to 49 per cent, from 25. It's not a bad idea, but it's still a 
 half 
 measure, a move that's more symbolic than substantive. (Someone may want to 
 let Mr. Harper in on the secret that for four years, the board of Air 
 Canada's parent company has been dominated by representatives of a New York 
 private equity firm.) 
  
  Mr. Harper said he'd open up the doors to foreigners on uranium projects, 
 sort of. At the moment, uranium mines must be at least 51 per cent owned by 
 domestic investors (though foreigners are welcome to blow all the money 
 they 
 want exploring for the stuff). The Tories propose to drop this, on two 
 conditions. 
  
 The first is that the money can't come from nations that are hostile to 
 security - put that chequebook away, Mr. Ahmadinejad. The second is that 
 the 
 Tories will allow foreign control only where it can negotiate reciprocity. 
 Sounds fine, but how revolutionary is it, really? Areva, the French nuclear 
 giant, already has an exemption: It owns 70 per cent of a major mine in 
 northern Saskatchewan and will have majority control of another that's 
 being 
 built. Perhaps Ottawa should go and negotiate a uranium reciprocity deal 
 with 
 France? Swell idea, except the French produce no uranium to speak of. 
  
 Mr. Harper's speech was far more notable for what wasn't in it. The 
 Conservative Leader says his new, more open investment regime "is about 
 raising the standard of living for individual Canadians and their families. 
 It's about fostering open markets that ensure the best prices for 
 consumers." Terrific. We're all in favour of competition and lower prices 
 and 
 a higher standard of living. 
  
 So the Tories will pledge to break the cable and telecom oligopolies, then, 
 by allowing foreign providers to enter Canada? Um, no. Shake up the Bay 
 Street scene by loosening the rules on foreign bank branches? No again. 
 Privatize Canada Post? Dismantle the farm supply monopolies that inflate 
 the 
 cost of milk, eggs, chicken? Force book retailers and broadcasters to face 
 the winds of direct U.S. competition? Free Petro-Canada from the yoke of 
 the 
 Petro-Canada Public Participation Act? No, no, no, and no. 
  
 This is "the party of free markets"? Finn Poschmann, director of research 
 at 
 the C.D. Howe Institute, says the Tories' ideas on foreign investment are 
 "steps in the right direction," but adds: "It's not terribly aggressive on 
 the liberalization front." 
  
 Privately, business-minded Tories try to explain this away. Yes, the policy 
 is milquetoast, but it has to be. This isn't 1988, when the Conservatives 
 could boldly push free trade and triumph over the Liberals and the 
 incompetent John Turner. They have to tread carefully if they wish to 
 defeat 
 the Liberals and the incompetent St€phane Dion. The last thing they need, 
 having worked this hard to give Mr. Harper a moderate image, is something 
 radical that would frighten the masses. Besides, selling Canada Post is the 
 kind of thing the yahoos in the Reform Party would have talked about during 
 an election campaign. 
  
 "Competition matters. It brings dynamism to our economy. It means good jobs 
 for our citizens ... Being open to competition serves Canada's national 
 interest." So said the Wilson panel that Mr. Harper's government created. 
 Would the Prime Minister be willing to implement more than just a few 
 watered-down aspects of the Wilson report if the Tories were to win a 
 majority? He'd better, because Canadian consumers could sure use a bit of 
 radical thought at the cabinet table. I don't know very many people who 
 worry 
 about who owns a uranium mine. But I know quite a few who buy milk. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)