#1Mar 21st, 2006
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at 17:58 on March 21, 2006, EST.
By BRUCE CHEADLE
OTTAWA (CP) - It's up to New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois - not Liberals - to see that the minority Conservative government survives its first throne speech, says Opposition leader Bill Graham.
With the House of Commons set to resume sitting in less than two weeks, Graham met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a half hour "courtesy call" Tuesday afternoon.
The interim Liberal leader emerged from Harper's office to say he reminded the new prime minister of his limited mandate from Canadian voters.
"He obviously made his points about where he intends to go with the speech from the throne," that will map out Tory ambitions on April 4.
Graham responded with counterpoints on maintaining the fledgling national child care program, on fully funding new aboriginal accords signed last November just before the election, and on a wider tax program than simply the proposed GST break.
"I did point out (that) his is a minority that is even less strong than ours and on many of these issues he knows that not only (does) he represent a minority of members of the House, but also in terms of the electorate," said Graham.
Harper's Tories captured 36 per cent of the popular vote and 123 seats on Jan. 23 - 10 fewer seats than the Liberal minority won in 2004.
Harper has since added another MP, former Liberal David Emerson.
The Liberals hold 102 seats, the Bloc 51, the NDP 29 and there is one Independent MP in the 308-seat Commons.
Graham said the Bloc and NDP helped topple the Liberals, causing an election that put Harper in power, "so let them vote for the government."
Debate over the throne speech will provide the first test of both Harper's resolve and of his political consistency.
In October 2004, the Conservatives and Bloc forced amendments to the throne speech of Paul Martin's new Liberal minority government, and Harper lauded the successful negotiations.
"I think what we've gotten over here is the idea that somebody's going to say, 'Here's my bill, or here's my throne speech or here's my government's agenda, and that's the way it's going to be - otherwise I call an election,' " Harper said at the time.
His rationale then was that a minority government doesn't have the legitimacy to set the whole agenda.
"The Liberal party can't expect to walk in and simply propose its own program that only one-third of Canadians supported and expect that everybody's going to vote for it."
Today, the Conservative government is adamant it will pursue only five specific governing priorities: a GST cut; a child care credit for parents; new accountability legislation for parliament; a patient wait times guarantee; and tough new criminal sanctions.
Harper met with Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe after Graham, completing a first round of what his office is calling courtesy calls with the opposition. NDP Leader Jack Layton met Harper last week.
A Harper spokeswoman said Tuesday there is no set timetable for further meetings between the leaders concerning the throne speech before April 4, but did not rule them out.
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