OTTAWA – Stephen Harper has unveiled a $6.6-billion platform that pledges to eliminate the deficit a year earlier than scheduled by cutting government spending.
But the Tories don’t say exactly what’s getting slashed to save the $11 billion they need to return Canada’s books to black.
The two platform items with the highest pricetags are a $2.2-billion payment to Quebec to compensate the province for harmonizing the GST and PST, and a $2.5-billion income-splitting plan.
The platform also includes bedrock Tory policies, like eliminating per-vote subsides and promises of Senate reform.
The “Here for Canada” plan focuses on five priorities: creating jobs, supporting families, eliminating the deficit, getting tough on crime, and investing in the North.
It borrows heavily from the ill-fated federal budget and pledges to bundle a number of crime bills into an omnibus piece of legislation that the party would pass within the first 100 days of Parliament.
