A leftward veer by Stephen Harper could be what it takes for the Prime Minister to avoid a spring election as the NDP shapes up as the most open of the three opposition parties to supporting the March budget.
Following a meeting with his MPs, NDP Leader Jack Layton left the door open to keeping the Conservatives in power provided they act on some of the party’s suggestions. Unlike the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois, Mr. Layton said he will look at the entire budget rather than listing any single demand as a deal breaker.
“This isn’t some kind of a poker game,” Mr. Layton told reporters.
Conservatives are steaming this week over the $5-billion in budget demands put forward by Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe. In contrast, some Conservatives are characterizing the NDP’s wish list as the most reasonable of the three opposition parties. Former Conservative campaign manager Tom Flanagan recently said the NDP would be a “cheap date” for the government.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has already suggested some budget items could overlap with NDP issues, listing measures for forestry workers and the unemployed as examples.
In a new memo prepared by the NDP, the party costs its main requests. The NDP wants the budget to include $700-million to raise the Guaranteed Income Supplement for low-income seniors; a doubling of the Canada Pension Plan benefit through higher premiums; a $700-million proposal to cut the GST on home heating fuels; $200-million to revive the home energy retrofit incentive, and longer-term pledges to improve health care.
Mr. Flaherty’s office has already rejected the NDP proposal on CPP. Changing the CPP requires the support of two-thirds of the provinces representing two-thirds of the population. Recent federal-provincial meetings have shown there is not currently enough support to move ahead with even a less expensive version of the NDP plan, which was originally advocated by the Canadian Labour Congress. The Conservatives are on record, however, as supporting further talks on increasing CPP benefits.
The NDP’s potential support for the budget remains unclear, though, because of the party’s position on corporate tax cuts. NDP MP and finance critic Tom Mulcair has repeatedly said it would be highly unlikely that the NDP would support a budget that includes further corporate tax cuts. Yet Mr. Layton’s comments on the issue are less definitive.
Mr. Layton said the NDP wants a “different approach” on corporate taxes. “You always have to look at the whole budget. There’s a great many items that could be there,” he said.
He noted that the NDP has opposed corporate tax cuts for years and voted against the staggered reductions Parliament approved in 2007 that include a final reduction on Jan. 1, 2012, to bring the federal rate to 15 per cent.
In an interview Thursday, Mr. Mulcair said he and the Leader are on the same page.
For his part, the Prime Minister is continuing his recent pattern of offering conciliatory words toward the opposition while releasing new attack ads questioning their motives.
“My position remains that we are, of course, very interested in hearing from the opposition on any particular measures that would help the Canadian economy,” the Prime Minister said Thursday during a trade-mission stop in Morocco. “And obviously we're listening very carefully in that regard.”
With a report from The Canadian Press
