Print | Send to friend | Email update

Canada's Conservatives vow tax cuts

Feb 7, 2006 8:41 AM

Canada's new Conservative prime minister named a mostly inexperienced government team and promised to cut taxes and prevent the kind of corruption that brought down the outgoing Liberal administration.

Despite the bold promises, Stephen Harper's fragile minority position will limit his ability to push through much in the way of radical change.

The Conservatives won the Jan. 23 election by promising to clean up government after 12 years of Liberal rule. They also want to clamp down on crime and boost defense spending.

"We will improve Canadians' faith in our public institutions by making government more accountable and effective," Harper said.

Harper, a 46-year economist, is the country's 22nd prime minister and the fifth youngest person to take up the job since Canada gained independence from Britain in 1867.

He campaigned against what he said were Liberal corruption and excess and arrived for the formal ceremony in a family minivan rather than the usual prime ministerial limousine.

Harper admitted he faces a challenge. His party controls a little more than a third of the seats in the House of Commons, where the Conservatives have no natural allies and could easily be defeated by the opposition parties.

"We know that governing in a minority is not going to be easy. But we have our legislative and governmental priorities and we will work together with others to find shared goals and common ideas," said Harper.

He reiterated a promise to lower taxes, starting with a cut to the federal goods and services tax.

His long-term agenda includes gradually transferring more money and power from Ottawa to the 10 provinces, an idea that is opposed by the Liberals and the left-leaning New Democrats.

He also plans to allow a free vote on whether to scrap laws legalizing gay marriage, another election promise that is likely to generate a great deal of controversy.

The official swearing-in ceremony was partially overshadowed by the defection of former Liberal Industry Minister David Emerson to the Conservatives, bringing Harper's novice cabinet some much-needed experience.

It also means the Conservatives - who did not win a single seat in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, Canada's three main cities - have a metropolitan minister. Harper also named an unelected lawyer from Montreal as public works minister.

Emerson's appointment as trade minister means the Conservatives have 125 of 308 seats in the House of Commons, compared with 102 for the Liberals.

Harper unveiled a 27-member cabinet, down from the almost 40 ministers who served under outgoing Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin.

"My smaller cabinet and more streamlined cabinet structure are designed for work -- not for show," said Harper.

Only one new member of the cabinet, Rob Nicholson, has had previous experience in the last federal Conservative government, which fell in October 1993.

The new finance minister is Jim Flaherty, who held the same post in Ontario's provincial government, while Harper's deputy, Peter MacKay, becomes foreign minister.

Earlier in the day, Martin formally handed in his resignation to Governor General Michaelle Jean, the representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada's head of state.

Martin had taken over in December 2003 with hopes of spending a decade in power but a government corruption scandal eventually brought down his minority government in November 2005.

Harper's ascent to the country's top job is his reward for uniting Canada's two squabbling right-wing opposition parties in late 2003. He was elected leader of the revamped Conservative Party in March 2004.