Tories fire session-ending shot at Liberals

Five Conservative federal cabinet ministers held a session-ending news conference Friday to remind Canadians of their government's achievements and to attack the Liberals for politicizing Parliament.

"Canadians expect their elected representatives here in Ottawa to work together," Transport Minister John Baird told reporters. "Sadly, the Liberal Party has chosen a very different path. They have taken every opportunity to politicize every issue and to score cheap political points no matter how important the issues are to Canadians."

The Liberals, he said, have politicized the investments made to stimulate the economy, the preparations for the H1N1 flu pandemic, and the work of soldiers in Afghanistan. "They took the side of a foreign government and state-controlled press on the question of human rights and Canadian values," Mr. Baird said. "They even tried to turn the Olympic torch relay into a political football."

While Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff tried to force an unnecessary election, "our Conservative government focused on providing tax cuts for families and for businesses," Mr. Baird said. "Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals were focused on playing games and voted against all of these important mechanisms."

It was a message that was repeated in French by Public Works Minister Christian Paradis, who also took shots at the Bloc Québécois for making personal attacks against his Conservative colleagues, before Human Resources Minister Diane Finley outlined what her government has done to help unemployed Canadians weather the economic downturn.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon talked about the work done by Canadians in Afghanistan, the recent efforts to bridge ties with China, and the upcoming Olympic Games.

And Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said his government is pleased to have passed a bill on identity theft and another that ends the process of giving criminals double credit for time served before their trials.

"It hasn't been easy," he said. "You will remember that the Liberal senators gutted our bill on two-for-one credit. We managed to get that changed. We've had a drug bill down there for over six months. And some of you will remember me holding a press conference like this calling on Mr. Ignatieff to lean on these people to pass this bill."

The Liberal-dominated Senate passed the bill, which imposed mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes, with amendments this week that the Conservatives say watered it down.

"I am calling on Mr. Ignatieff to exercise some leadership," Mr. Nicholson said, "and end this disconnect between the Liberals in the House of Commons and the Liberals in the Senate."

Ralph Goodale, the Liberal House Leader, laughed at the suggestion that it is the opposition parties that have created a negative atmosphere in Parliament.

"John Baird complaining about somebody else being too political is just a bit outrageous," Mr. Goodale told The Globe Friday afternoon.

The Conservatives, he said, have used millions of dollars of taxpayer money to run partisan advertising campaigns, sent out government-funded flyers attacking opposition MPs, and publicly attacked civil servants who disagreed with them.

"This is a government that, from the very moment it arrived after the last election - and one could argue long before that too - adopted a very strident, bitter, negative tone," Mr. Goodale said. "They were in your face all the time, all the time on every issue. And when they come to Parliament with that kind of negative and belligerent attitude, you can certainly expect Parliament to respond."