Premiers don’t get much attention far from home. When Nova Scotia’s Darrell Dexter pulled up in a cab Monday, I signed him in at security incognito before taking him up to the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau for a chat.
After reminiscing about our university days in Nova Scotia — he shot hoops and remains a diehard Raptors fan, perhaps because New Democrats dream of upset victories — the conversation turns to Ottawa: A place where premiers command less attention than ever.
It has been more than three years since Prime Minister Stephen Harper last deigned to meet his provincial counterparts. First Ministers’ Conferences (FMCs) have been on hold ever since — or more precisely, in decline and withdrawal.
Power abhors a vacuum. Premiers, too.
Now with Ottawa AWOL from FMCs, the premiers have been reduced to COF — the Council of the Federation, a.k.a. the premiers’ conferences that reunite them every summer.
As chair of this year’s conclave in Nova Scotia, Dexter wants to rally Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty and other premiers on the economy. The provinces have faced an economic downturn and slowdown — yet all along, not a peep from the PM.
Getting Ottawa’s attention later this month will be Dexter’s priority — not only to revive dormant federal-provincial ties but rescue a moribund economy:
“In all that time there has never been a federal-provincial joint meeting,” he complains.
East-west tensions have festered in the interim. Yet Dexter echoes McGuinty’s concerns about a high petro-dollar that prices Canadian manufacturing out of export markets, because Nova Scotians share our pain: A major paper mill has closed in his province, just as Northern Ontario has been denuded of pulp mills.
“We don’t think it’s earth-shattering for someone to say, ‘Yes, the high Canadian dollar affects our ability to compete,’” Dexter told me.
In February, McGuinty’s complaints about economic fallout from the oil sands elicited a harsh rejoinder from Alberta’s Alison Redford, but Dexter says he didn’t have to play peacemaker when he visited Calgary last month. Redford focused instead on her proposed pan-Canadian energy strategy, which needs Ontario’s support.
Admirable as it is for the premiers to map out new national strategies on energy or the economy, who represents the over-arching national interest that rises above provincial aspirations? As premier of a have-not Maritime province that always views Ottawa as a backstop, Dexter insists it’s a key question:
“It’s a very interesting time for the history of the premiers, because the federal government is withdrawing from so many fields right now.”
Ottawa is not only shunning traditional FMCs, it is outflanking those annual COFs by shortchanging the provinces on transfer payments — and exiting from centrist stage. The federal Conservatives have embraced an extreme view of “disentangled federalism” in education and health care, which amounts to an abdication without discussion.
“Once you get that kind of withdrawal, in my view, the federal government becomes more and more detached from the lives of ordinary people,” Dexter argues. “If you’re going to keep moving yourself further and further away from the services that people depend on, you’re going to become less and less relevant to those people over time.”
It’s hard to make headway with a prime minister who won’t meet face to face. Harper is like the dog who can’t be coaxed out from under the porch — he has too many bad memories of premiers barking and baying in years past.
Can Dexter succeed where others have failed? Getting him a taxi, I make a mental note that he is easily underestimated — even on the basketball court in university days. Now, improbably, he is NDP premier of a traditionally conservative province — because he puts Nova Scotians at ease. He also makes his fellow premiers relax.
Can he one day coax the PM out from under the porch?
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Martin Regg Cohn
After reminiscing about our university days in Nova Scotia — he shot hoops and remains a diehard Raptors fan, perhaps because New Democrats dream of upset victories — the conversation turns to Ottawa: A place where premiers command less attention than ever.
It has been more than three years since Prime Minister Stephen Harper last deigned to meet his provincial counterparts. First Ministers’ Conferences (FMCs) have been on hold ever since — or more precisely, in decline and withdrawal.
Power abhors a vacuum. Premiers, too.
Now with Ottawa AWOL from FMCs, the premiers have been reduced to COF — the Council of the Federation, a.k.a. the premiers’ conferences that reunite them every summer.
As chair of this year’s conclave in Nova Scotia, Dexter wants to rally Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty and other premiers on the economy. The provinces have faced an economic downturn and slowdown — yet all along, not a peep from the PM.
Getting Ottawa’s attention later this month will be Dexter’s priority — not only to revive dormant federal-provincial ties but rescue a moribund economy:
“In all that time there has never been a federal-provincial joint meeting,” he complains.
East-west tensions have festered in the interim. Yet Dexter echoes McGuinty’s concerns about a high petro-dollar that prices Canadian manufacturing out of export markets, because Nova Scotians share our pain: A major paper mill has closed in his province, just as Northern Ontario has been denuded of pulp mills.
“We don’t think it’s earth-shattering for someone to say, ‘Yes, the high Canadian dollar affects our ability to compete,’” Dexter told me.
In February, McGuinty’s complaints about economic fallout from the oil sands elicited a harsh rejoinder from Alberta’s Alison Redford, but Dexter says he didn’t have to play peacemaker when he visited Calgary last month. Redford focused instead on her proposed pan-Canadian energy strategy, which needs Ontario’s support.
Admirable as it is for the premiers to map out new national strategies on energy or the economy, who represents the over-arching national interest that rises above provincial aspirations? As premier of a have-not Maritime province that always views Ottawa as a backstop, Dexter insists it’s a key question:
“It’s a very interesting time for the history of the premiers, because the federal government is withdrawing from so many fields right now.”
Ottawa is not only shunning traditional FMCs, it is outflanking those annual COFs by shortchanging the provinces on transfer payments — and exiting from centrist stage. The federal Conservatives have embraced an extreme view of “disentangled federalism” in education and health care, which amounts to an abdication without discussion.
“Once you get that kind of withdrawal, in my view, the federal government becomes more and more detached from the lives of ordinary people,” Dexter argues. “If you’re going to keep moving yourself further and further away from the services that people depend on, you’re going to become less and less relevant to those people over time.”
It’s hard to make headway with a prime minister who won’t meet face to face. Harper is like the dog who can’t be coaxed out from under the porch — he has too many bad memories of premiers barking and baying in years past.
Can Dexter succeed where others have failed? Getting him a taxi, I make a mental note that he is easily underestimated — even on the basketball court in university days. Now, improbably, he is NDP premier of a traditionally conservative province — because he puts Nova Scotians at ease. He also makes his fellow premiers relax.
Can he one day coax the PM out from under the porch?
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Martin Regg Cohn
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