Prime Minister Stephen Harper is willing to re-enter debate over the Constitution in order to address concerns across the country, he told CBC News as legislators prepare for Parliament to resume Monday.
“Ultimately, there will have to be constitutional changes,” Harper said in an interview with CBC Radio’s The House on the weekend.
The comment came as Harper and his Conservative minority government get ready for the opening of the 39th Parliament in Ottawa. Harper became prime minister after the Jan. 23 general election that saw the defeat of the Liberal minority government under Paul Martin.
Harper told the CBC that, as he considers his moves in the weeks and months ahead, constitutional change would be on his list – and not for only one province.
Harper said he would act not “just to accommodate Quebec but also to accommodate demands we have from the West and from other parts of the country.”
The prime minister also said that any revisiting of the constitution would have to involve concerns from all of “the population of Canada.”
Since its election, the Harper government has put an emphasis on five issues: accountability, GST cuts, law and order, childcare and health care.
Harper also told the CBC he will work to rectify questions of a fiscal imbalance between the federal and provincial levels.
“We’re prepared to do what we can to address it,” he said.
“Now, the truth of the matter is the provinces don’t all agree on the size of the problem, the nature of how that problem should be solved across the country.”
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Layton says NDP will push ethics, environment**
Meanwhile, NDP Leader Jack Layton said Sunday he wants to see that issues such as parliamentary ethics and the environment are also given top priority.
“The Conservatives are turning out to be just as bad as the Liberals,” Layton told delegates at the NDP federal council meeting in Ottawa.
Layton said he wanted to see a parliamentary debate on Canada’s military role in Afghanistan.
The NDP leader also said his party would not be willing to see Harper’s minority government change laws in areas such as same-sex marriage.
Layton said the NDP will “stand firm” against any attempt “to roll back the clock on progress in this country.”
Ref: ‘There will have to be constitutional changes,’ Harper says](http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/02/harper-parliament-060402.html)
Many say that he promised transparency; however, given that he is no longer informing the media of the cabinet meetings (or some other sort of important meetings), he has failed to live up to this promise of his. Many are also of the opinion that this makes our government less democratic and perhaps even concealing, as media is no longer informed of the cabinet meetings.
In addition, making changes to the constitution does not sound very good. I just have a bad feeling about it. I could very well be wrong though. I suppose coming days would be able to provide us with a better picture.
