Responsibilities: National Defence

Responsibilities Dept: The Prime Minister s intergovernmental agenda has been quite transparent from the outset. He has funnelled loads of new money without debating core powers or roles and responsibilities; capped the rate of those transfers to get a grip on federal funding; moved to an equal per-capita funding formula that benefits Alberta and Ontario, mainstays of the Conservative Party s vote; and directed much of the federal treasury to new personal and corporate tax cuts, national defence, and core federal responsibilities to reduce longing provincial/territorial eyes for more. Oh yes, and no First Ministers Meetings to barter, according to Globe and Mail. But the consequences of this remarkably compartmentalized approach to a federation like ours are profound. The country is, paradoxically, to be united by respecting provincial and cultural differences even at the cost of lost national opportunity and no one seems particularly surprised or exercised by this decision. Six years after winning power with a platform calling for a new relationship of open federalism and a promise to support the important contribution the Council of the Federation is making Mr. Harper has held just one lunch session with premiers. The easiest and cheapest form of open federalism is to avoid it all together. Engaging with premiers as a group is not just bad politics and risky financial management, but for the Harper government, quite contrary to how the country should actually be run. The Prime Minister has transmitted his intentions to stick to his own constitutional knitting and basically invited the premiers to do the same. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.