Leader of the Opposition - Part II

To finish up my post on Stephen Harper this week, there are two major policy announcements that deserve some attention:

1. On Wednesday, Mr. Harper gave a speech in Quebec and he said the following:
   

   A new Conservative government will ensure that decisions about criminal prosecution are independent of politicians and independent of politics. We will create an arm’s-length, independent Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. This Director will take over responsibility for all federal criminal prosecutions ... An impartial prosecutor, appointed with input from all parties in Parliament, will make final, binding decisions about prosecutions ... Among other things, the Director of Public Prosecutions will decide on criminal prosecutions involving present or former government officials. No longer will the Attorney General face the conflict of deciding matters involving his own cabinet colleagues or his own party.
   

   
   I'm sure this sounds like a great idea, sounded like a good idea to me at first as well. Then I got to thinking about it. The first problem is jurisdiction, Harper's plan would be another federal attempt at usurping Provincial powers and potentially getting in the way of provincial investigations. The other problem is best exemplified by the case of Mr. Kenneth Starr. In the US, where a similar system is blately abused by partisan political stunts.
   
   IT turns out that I wasn't the only person thinking about these things. One of these people, Peter Mackay (Stephen Harper's Deputy Leader), pointed out at least one of the problems with the plan. You see he's read the constitution, here's what he had to say:
   

   ``Let me be clear,'' MacKay told reporters later Wednesday as Harper prepared to introduce local candidates at a Halifax hotel. ``A federal prosecutor has no jurisdiction over criminal offences, which include the Criminal Code.''

   That office ``would have no jurisdiction to go back and make decisions, make any sort of advice even available to investigators when it comes to provincial offences.''

   It would deal only with federal crimes such as drug or immigration offences, he said.

   I'm not a legal expert by any stretch but it seems to me that this was potentially some good politics but the execution was pretty bad. Canadians are getting a chance to choose whether Mr. Harper should get to lead the country. I'm half convinced that Peter Mackay doesn't want him to get that chance.
   

2. The other big policy announcement was a reduction in the GST. I'm probably going to dedicate a whole post to this tomorrow so I'll be brief. Mr. Harper's announcement that the Gst would be reduced to 5% from 7% is a policy disaster disguised as some really good politics. I realise that Canadians don't like the GST and that my party promised to get rid of it a little more than a decade ago. Unfortunately (and I hate to say this) it isn't a bad tax. More about this tomorrow...