Jean Charest: Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

Prime Minister Stephen Harper Dept: Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who is to table his budget on March 29, showed little patience for arguments that Central Canada is a special case, according to Globe and Mail. The underlying principle here is that provincial governments are not subordinate to the federal government, Mr. Charest said. The federal government is not the sole guardian of the common good. Visiting Toronto Monday, Quebec Premier Jean Charest joined his Ontario counterpart Dalton McGuinty in warning Ottawa not to balance its books by downloading costs onto cash-strapped provinces. He also offered a history lecture to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, saying that in times of strong majority government in Ottawa, the provinces can offer an effective check on federal power. Mr. Charest put Mr. Harper on notice that the majority his government enjoys does not extend beyond the House of Commons. He delivered that salvo in a speech on Monday to The Canadian Club of Toronto, where he quoted Canada s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, to argue that Mr. Harper is abandoning a long tradition of collaborating with the provinces. In a federal system of government, Mr. Charest said, the Prime Minister does not get to make unilateral decisions. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.