Globe and Mail blog: Harper's broken promise on Buy America

[tuvor]

Add it to the list, if there's still room...


News of a deal on Buy America should be great news for the country. Unfortunately there's a tiny little problem with it from the Conservative Party's perspective.

You see, in the 2006 election, the Conservatives ran on a platform where one of their clear, core commitments was they would "place international treaties before Parliament for ratification." It's right there on page 43. To the Conservatives' credit, to the best of my knowledge they have kept this commitment so far. That's about to change with the Buy America deal.

Now, if the House was sitting this week, they could quickly submit the deal with the Americans for ratification - promise kept. Sadly, as you may have heard scuttle about, the House is not sitting for another month, which means either Canadian businesses lose out on yet another month of business in the United States or Stephen Harper breaks a campaign commitment because it is now politically inconvenient. Quite a dilemma.

If only this was foreseeable and/or avoidable. Alas.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/silver-powers/harpers-broken-promise-on-buy-america/article1457802/

[HeresyLives]

1. It's not a treaty.

Much as I dislike Harper, it's just an exemption from a clause in an American bill.