Two Tories: Stephen Harper and John Tory talk on CFRB radio

STEPHEN HARPER: Hi, John. How are you?
JOHN TORY: Fine, thank you.
I know there are other issues you and Canadians want to talk about and we will talk to you on a couple of those in the time available to us today, but we have to start with the situation in the Senate. I…
STEPHEN HARPER: Sure.
JOHN TORY: I want to tell you a story. I was sitting in the Eaton Centre this morning and a man recognized me and came over and said he was really mad at the Senators. And he said he was not mad at you at all, but he… he did say to me that he thought they should have some place to make their case.
And my question is, do you think that the discussion of that, which we call due process, whatever we call it, has obscured the issue of the mistreatment of the taxpayers’ money, and is this going to cause any rethinking on your part about where we go from here?
STEPHEN HARPER: No. I don’t think it has at all, John. I think Canadians are actually very clear on this. I know the majority of Conservative senators are, a vast majority of our caucus and Canadians as well.
I think everyone knows that the facts here have been looked into by over… for over a year by the Senate, by audits and by studies. There is absolutely no doubt what these three senators did. The question that’s being disputed here – there’s some people who believe that there only should be disciplinary action taken if a senator is actually guilty or charged with criminal wrongdoing.
And… and that is… John, I just don’t think, and I don’t think most Canadians think that’s an acceptable standard.
It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that these senators in some cases have collected literally up to six figures worth of ineligible expenses, did so willingly over a long period of time and I… you know, I guess what I would say and what I think most Canadians would say, if you did that in your work your boss wouldn’t wait for you to be convicted of a crime. Your boss would say that, and that alone, requires that there’s some action be taken in terms of your job.
And to be sitting on the public payroll and just oh, repay the money, I think we’re way past that stage in these cases. And look, I think that’s what Canadians expect, that when… when people notwithstanding other qualities they may have, when people abuse a position of trust at this level and over this time period and this clearly, that there will be appropriate action taken that frankly removes them from the public payroll.
JOHN TORY: I want to ask you one more question about this and then move on to free…
STEPHEN HARPER: Can I just…
STEPHEN HARPER: Yes. Yes.
STEPHEN HARPER: … just mention, John, you know, that as you know, this is the debate going on and I think the… as I say, this was a motion moved by the majority of Conservative Senators and I think the Senate should at least vote on it. Right now the Liberals are just trying to delay a vote. Let the Senate vote on it.
JOHN TORY: And I guess we’ll see that happen sometime next week.
The… the other issue on people’s minds is the debate that’s gone on about your role. And I’ll make a statement and perhaps you can respond to it. When I see someone raise the stakes in a position of great responsibility such as yours, as you did in directly and concisely and repeatedly stating that you weren’t involved in the sort of construction of this Nigel Wright/Mike Duffy thing or involved thereafter, I… I think people normally would conclude that it’s true. But I’ll ask you once again since there seems to be an ongoing debate and suggestions made to you in the house that you haven’t been straight with the Canadian people on this.
STEPHEN HARPER: Look John, obviously I didn’t know and obviously had I known about this, I would have told Mr. Wright not to undertake these actions as I think frankly, you know, it would be just about everybody’s reaction in these circumstances.
I think I had every right to know. I think I should have been told. I think I clearly should have been consulted. I was not. And obviously Mr. Wright, in fairness, has accepted that that was wrong. He’s accepted his responsibility for that and he is no longer on the public payroll, which is another reason why these senators should not be either.
JOHN TORY: So the same man in the Eaton Centre did not talk to me about the new free trade agreement with the European Union, but had he been there and you’d been there with us, what would you have said to him for him, as a resident of Ontario, as to why this is a good thing for the province of Ontario?
STEPHEN HARPER: Well look, I think it’s just a great thing for the country, period, John. You know, we’ve been trying to get trade deals to diversify ourselves beyond the United States for… for 35 years.
We have now, in terms of size of market, this is the biggest trade deal we’ve ever had. Between this and NAFTA and various other trade deals we’ve signed, we’ve got free trade access or we will have free trade access to over half of the global economy. Ninety-eight per cent of tariffs are coming off. This is a tremendous opportunity for Canadian and Ontario producers in just about every sector.
Obviously this is the most… this is the most affluent, the richest market in the world by size. A great opportunity for our manufacturers in Ontario. Automotive sector in particular, the agreement will allow up to 100,000 passenger vehicles to be exported to Europe. This would be 12 and half…. a 12.5-fold increase over current exports. And of course, you know, we will have for our automotive sector, access to both the United States and Europe which, at least for a few years to come, the United States is not going to have.
JOHN TORY: If you hear fears or concerns from any places, again, speaking about Ontario, which is where I sit, you hear it from the wine industry and from the dairy people, what do you have to say to them by way of trying to… to… to calm their concerns?
STEPHEN HARPER: Well, actually I don’t think the wine industry should be or I don’t really think their… I’m… we’re not hearing that… the strong concerns. The vintners association has, along with just about every other industrial organization in the country, has supported this.
You know, look, in terms of… in terms of the dairy sector, we’ve maintained the pillars of our supply management system. The access, the additional access granted to the European… the Europeans in specifically, principally in cheese, is very restricted to that, it will impact… potentially impact our production only in a limited way and only over a limited period of time and the government has indicted it will provide compensation for that.
So at the same time, of course, the dairy industry’s going to have basically unlimited access to the Europe market. So I hope that they take some comfort from what I just said about the deal but also see some opportunity to expand their business.
JOHN TORY: My final question, in the time we have available, is that the Bank of Canada governor painted a lukewarm picture this week, a lot of it based on what’s going on in the U.S.  I’m assuming that you’ll be saying, on behalf of the government, it’s still stay the course in terms of getting ourselves, you know, in better position and really maintain the position we have, which is pretty favoured.
STEPHEN HARPER: Yes. Look, we… we’re pretty clear in the… in the speech from the throne that the number one priority of the government is the economy. It’s going to remain jobs and growth. You know, I say the opposition focuses every day on the Senate, the government actually focused most of the time on the economy.
And look, our… our main commitment remains that we will make sure we continue to move our budget to balance without raising taxes. We’re doing that. And that we’ll make the various strategic investments in the economy necessary to… to create jobs and opportunity.
And obviously I don’t have to tell you that the… that the big breakthrough we’ve had in free trade with the deal with the European Union is… you know, I think just about everyone could see… concede is about the possible thing we could do in terms of opening up opportunities for Canadian business and Canadian jobs.
JOHN TORY: With, I assume, more files to come that you’re still working on in that… in that area.
STEPHEN HARPER: Yes. Lots of other things we’re going to continue to do in the jobs area. We’ve done a lot already. As you know, whether it’s in investments to improve manufacturing or boost innovation, invest in skills trades and apprentices.
But you know, John, I think we all recognize we’re in a challenging world, very uncertain and at times unstable global economy and the government has to go farther and faster.
JOHN TORY: Prime Minister Stephen Harper, thank you very much for your time.
STEPHEN HARPER: Thanks for having me.
JOHN TORY: Thank you, sir, very much.
STEPHEN HARPER: Great. Thanks, John.