Oct 3, 2008 4:00 pm US/Central
Canadian PM Criticizes US Bailout Passage
Harper Under Attack By Opponents, Charged With Plagiarism
TORONTO (AP) ―
As Canada faces an economic slowdown, the country's prime minister said Friday that Canadians don't need a Parliament that acts like the U.S. Congress and panics like the U.S. Treasury Department.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper criticized the way the U.S. has managed the credit crisis a day after political rivals said during a debate the Canadian leader was out of touch with the seriousness of Canada's slowing economy, which they blamed on shock waves from the U.S. crisis.
"We don't need a Parliament that acts and functions like the American Congress," Harper said Friday.
The U.S. House on Friday gave its approval to a Senate-passed $700 billion plan to buy bad assets from American banks and other institutions in an effort to shore up the financial industry. The vote came just four days after the House had unexpectedly defeated the measure.
"We're not going to get into a situation like we have in the United States where we're panicking and annunciating a different plan every day," Harper said.
The Conservative Party leader said he needs a strong mandate from voters in the Oct. 14 national elections so he can deal with the economic slowdown. He said Canada has avoided a mortgage meltdown and a banking crisis and promised a steady hand on the economy.
"The Canadian economy has continued to create jobs-it's slower than it was, but it continues to grow," Harper said. "In Canada, we had a fairly stable mortgage sector and obviously our banks are in a stable situation."
Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion said Harper has no plan to tackle economic challenges or make Canada more competitive. He said he would meet with financial regulators, economists and provincial leaders within 30 days of a Liberal election victory to chart an economic course.
Harper called early elections in hopes his party can increase its numbers in the 308-seat Parliament. Recent polls say the Liberals are trailing badly and the Conservatives could win a majority of seats.
As a minority government in the previous Parliament, the Conservatives had to rely on the opposition to pass budgets and legislation.
Also on Friday, a Liberal candidate leveled a new charge of plagiarism against Harper, the second such charge against the Conservative leader this week.
David McGuinty accused Harper of copying some phrases from a speech delivered by former Ontario Premier Mike Harris in 2002 about being a strong leader.
Conservative spokesman Dan Dugas dismissed the charge. "Here, they've identified 44 words out of a 4,956-word speech that are similar, not identical, to a speech by another conservative," he said.
Earlier in the week, a senior Conservative campaign staffer resigned after admitting he wrote a 2003 speech for Harper that plagiarized a speech given two days earlier by then Australian Prime Minister John Howard urging support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
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