Interview with Stockwell Day and Joe Clark

Day: «I am not focused on Joe. I am focused on uniting the Country»

Clark: «The more people got to look at Mr. Day and his policies the less they will like him."

by Angelo Persichilli

The Hill Times

Newly-elected Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day, who has promised Parliament would be radically different under a Day government, said MPs need more freedom, and added that it's "astonishing how Liberal members of Parliament are muzzled."

Mr. Day, who won the leadership on July 8 with more than 64 per cent of the vote, also campaigned on a reformed Senate. He said senators should be elected and observed "the walls of resistance in the Senate will come down like the wall of resistance in Eastern Europe."

Mr. Day said one of his priorities is the "democratization of the Parliamentary system" and stated "the fact that we live in a country where the present government doesn't allow its members of Parliament to vote freely and vote freely on behalf of the citizens, it's astonishing."

Mr. Day has a message for Liberal MPs as well.

"I believe that the Liberal MPs will be astonished after the next federal election when they realize that the citizens have had enough. They are tired of not being represented. They will say `Where is the courage among the members of the Parliament,'" Mr. Day said in an interview with The Hill Times.

"When was the last time you have heard or saw Liberal MPs standing up in public or in the House of Commons and demanding Paul Martin reduce taxes on business -- demanding that the criminal justice system be fixed, that the rights of citizens and victims are respected. But you know that the citizens want that to happen. They are muzzled," he said.

Mr. Day said he is convinced that "the level of concern about that among Canadians is a lot bigger than the Liberals anticipate and will be one of the reasons we will be able to form the next government."

Mr. Day said he also plans to push aggressively for a reformed Senate.

"People have talked about the fact that once we form the government we will face resistance in the Senate," said a cocky Mr. Day. "Already something has happened. Two weeks ago we saw a senator, Senator Gerry St. Germain, he says that the Senate has to be reformed. And if Canadian Alliance gets elected, he himself will run for a seat in the Senate. It's going to be something like that that is going to cause a monumental shift in terms of Senate reform."

Initiatives like the one of Sen. St. Germain, Mr. Day said he believes, will open a "crack in the wall first, and then the pressure of the public will absolutely cause the Senate resistance to come down."

Declared Mr. Day: "The senators, who will resist reform and do not want to be elected, will find themselves totally unacceptable to the public."

Mr. Day said he anticipates that "there are other senators that are very close to making the same kind of statement that has been made by Sen. St. Germain," who left the Tory party to support the Canadian Alliance.

Meanwhile, Mr. Day, 49, said he is not particularly interested in what Conservative Leader Joe Clark thinks about his victory, adding that he is not interested in running against the Tory leader in the Calgary Centre, Alta., riding.

Mr. Day reaffirmed his "respect" for the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, but said he is "not focused on Joe at all. I am focused on uniting the country and building a coalition that is necessary to form the next government."

As for the challenge from Mr. Clark, who last week called on Mr. Day to run against him in a Calgary Centre byelection, Mr. Day asserted: "I absolutely do not have to. I do not want hurt him. The polls are saying that I can win there too. But, the fact is that we have a very good member of the Parliament. The Canadian Alliance and I believe very strongly in local democracy. The constituency board, the president and the members of that board, want their MP, Eric Lowther to stay there to run against Joe Clark in the election. The polls also show that Mr. Lowther will be able to win."

Mr. Day flatly dismissed critics' assumptions that his popularity, and that of his party, will fade once the interest raised by the leadership convention disappears.

Mr. Day, however, maintained he will be in the House very soon. "Obviously there has to be a byelection. I want to be [in the House] as soon possible. But there is no way I am going to consult a local association and suggest that their guy cannot do the job. Eric Lowther can do the job in the next general election and I will be getting in the House as soon as possible, in a constituency where someone is willing to step down."

As for the future relationship between his party and the Progressive Conservatives, Mr. Day declared: "I respect Joe and the years that he has served the country. I would ask him to consider the incredible number of Tories joining the Canadian Alliance. And that continues and has picked up since the leadership race is now behind us. We are very encouraged in terms of the Canadian Alliance growing and the coalition happening between the conservatives."

Mr. Day also claimed, "Liberals are joining us too. We are growing and we are very excited about it."

Embattled Tory Leader Joe Clark, meanwhile, told The Hill Times that he is not very concerned about the new leader of Canadian Alliance.

Mr. Clark's main line of attack against the Canadian Alliance and its newly elected leader is that their policies have been tried and have failed in other regions.

Mr. Clark singled out the party's recall policy as being a forsaken leftover from

former Alberta

minister Ernest Manning's Social Credit government.

Moreover, Mr. Clark said he is convinced "that the more people got to look at Mr. Day and his policies the less they will like him."

For his part, Mr. Clark said he believes that issues like abortion and the death penalty "have been extensively debated in Canada."

"I remember sitting up for days and days in the House of the Commons trying to have an agreement among members of the Parliament on how to change the abortion law and we were not able to do that. My own view is that we have more important things to focus on as a country like creating jobs, growth. Mr. Day might be led by his personal views, to try to open this agenda again," he stated.

Mr. Clark, however, said that he is against capital punishment. "I have not, in my Parliamentary career, supported that but I have always left my party free to vote as they wish on that question."

As for abortion, Mr. Clark said that he has "a great respect for human life, although I also have big respect for the right of choice of women. And that is how I have personally voted on that question. Again, there are free votes in my party on those issues."

Mr. Clark said he likes the status quo on this issue for two reasons: "One, when we tried to change the last time we were unable to change because there was no consensus in the country to support a change. [And secondly] we have a limited time in Parliament, so it's far better for us to deal with change in tax policy, far better to change in health and environment policy. That's what my priorities would be. And, if Mr. Day's priority is to open up old issues like capital punishment and abortion, Canadian will judge if that is there where they want to be."

As well, the PC leader said that he is against the recall proposal: "A lot of things that Alliance proposes have been tried elsewhere and did not work. The recall process was tried in Alberta, in a government in which Mr. Manning's own father was a minister. And, when they tried to recall the premier, they changed the law. It doesn't work very well."

As for the world of powerful lobbyists, Mr. Clark is concerned about lobbyists's activities but admitted "it would be very hard to regulate."

Mr. Clark, however, agreed that much more should be known about the role of the lobbyists, and more should be known about who contributes to political parties.

He pointed out that "in this, the leadership campaign that the Reform Party had, there were immense amounts of money poured into those campaigns, and nobody knows who gave the money. Nobody knows who was trying to buy what influence of political leaders. We live in a democracy, which should be as open as possible."

Mr. Clark's stiffer attack, however, was levelled against the Liberals because they "were not telling the truth about what they were going to do."

He asserted that the Liberals were elected by attacking free trade and, yet when they came to office, they carried free trade forward. He drew the same parallels to the GST.

"The ability to trust the government is very important. But Mr. Chrétien he says something, but you have no idea whether he is going to keep that promise or not."

According to Mr. Clark, the most serious concern he has is that "Chrétien's government, whenever there is a major issue that comes up, they duck. They take a free ride on the hard decisions."

Mr. Clark pointed to two issues: tax reduction and health care.

"They have taken Canada's system and they have let it fall into a situation were people are really concerned."

About taxes he said: "Canada has to cut taxes now in order to become competitive in a very difficult, international world. But Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Martin are very timid about this. They do not show leadership. My criticism is not that they stole good policies, but the fact that they have no policies on their own."

Mr. Clark was unequivocal about his position on Clarity Bill.

"This is the first time in history that the law of Canada says that the country can be broken up. I thought that it was bad from the moment it came in because it strengthens the hands of the separatist government," he affirmed.

In the end, Mr. Clark confirmed that he is very clear about issues and will always speak his mind.

"I have learned in my life that sometimes, if you are right or you absolutely believe you are right, you have to stand up and fight for you interests. What I am trying to do in public life is that, when I believe something is right, I say so. When it is wrong, I say so. I thought that the Clarity Bill was wrong."