Tories take aim at Cullen

OTTAWA  — The Conservatives are taking aim at the NDP’s newly unveiled shadow cabinet and it seems Nathan Cullen — a vocal opponent to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline who won many over with his charismatic personality during the leadership race —  is first on the hit list.

Here’s what the Tories are saying about the party’s new House Leader in a statement dubbed “get to know Mr. Mulcair’s NDP shadow cabinet.”

    Mr. Mulcair chose to promote activists who have lobbied against Canada’s ability to develop and sell its own resources . . .

    “For example, Mr. Mulcair appointed Nathan Cullen as House Leader. During the recent leadership race, Mr. Cullen repeatedly called on the government to restrict natural resource development and he strongly opposes the Conservative government’s plan to streamline the review process for major economic projects.

    “These reforms will ensure that projects get a timely, fair hearing without unnecessary delays driven by foreign-funded special interests. Governments around the world are seeing the need to improve the approvals process to ensure that projects are not unreasonably delayed or blocked.

    “Yet when it comes to developing Canada’s natural resources and opening up new export markets, Mr. Cullen prefers to let foreign-funded special interests hijack the process over job creation. Mr. Cullen clings to a strictly ideological position on natural resources and does not take into account the financial well-being of workers and the economic growth tied to projects in this sector. His approach would result in a future with less government revenues available for important social programs and a less prosperous Canada.”

During the recent leadership race, Cullen advocated in favour of a balanced approach to natural resources development that takes into account environmental concerns. He called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and promised to block foreign take overs, such as those in the mining sector, that aren’t beneficial to Canada.

He also vowed to invest revenues from a cap-and-trade system into companies that create green jobs and called on Canada to stop exporting raw resources like bitumen and logs, and instead create jobs here that transform natural resources into products.

The Tories are promising more attacks against individual New Democrats in the “coming days.”

Expecting an onslaught of negativity after the leadership race, the NDP has already released ads aimed at defining their new leader before the other parties do.

So far most of the attacks have come from the third-party Liberals. They’ve also been largely directed at Mulcair himself.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Tobi Cohen