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The Conservatives' plan to stem the $500-billion flight of capital from Canada
Opening Parliament on Groundhog Day is ironic, but not funny. Winter is coming.
This week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre posted a video on X, “seeking an urgent meeting with the prime minister” to “bring practical solutions, an openness to hear other ideas and work together to fast-track results.”
No one is pretending we’re not in a crisis in Canada, and increasingly, parliamentarians are hearing their constituents’ pleas for less partisanship and more solutions. I recently spoke with one such member of Parliament: Greg McLean.
He’s a Conservative who campaigned hard in the last three elections to beat back Liberal competitors in the urban riding of Calgary Centre. As MP, he’s a big believer in all-party committee and policy work, trying to shape a parliamentary democracy that works for all Canadians. But he says it’s not that simple these days.
“If you think about democracy being a three-legged stool — with the judiciary, the legislature and the executive,” Greg explains, “the role of the legislature has diminished significantly with the Liberal government ignoring the role of the legislature in that democracy.
“I see that continuing with this prime minister, unfortunately,” he laments, “We’d like him to do well, but we’d also like him to respect that Canada is a democracy that has a legislature … it isn’t just an executive run — sit down and sign an edict and this is the way it’s going to be. You have to move some of these laws, and changes in laws, through Parliament. And that’s our role. We need to get back to that.”
There’s no ignoring the fact that political expediency can be seductive. I ask Greg whether he expects more floor-crossings, to give the Liberals a majority government.
“I don’t know,” he responds solemnly. “I hope not.”
“The Michael Ma crossing was a shock, to all of us. I turned over the chairmanship of the parliamentary friendship group, the Canada-Hong Kong parliamentary friendship group, to Michael, because of his strong representation there,” he says.
“I don’t know what the quid pro quo on the floor crossings are,” Greg muses. “But I don’t think it’s good for Canada at this point in time to have that process continue in the way that it did with Michael Ma.”
There are more upbeat things for Conservatives to talk about, however: the buzz he’s feeling in the aftermath of a rousing party convention, and most of all, policy ideas he presented there, to revive Canada’s stagnating economy.
Last spring, Poilievre asked Greg to chair an economic growth council, together with two fellow Tories, MP Gaetan Malette and former MP Rick Perkins, to consult with business leaders across the country and recommend what can be done to stem the flow of investment dollars out of Canada. Over the past decade, more than $500 billion in Canadian investment capital has flowed abroad, chasing better returns elsewhere.
This mandate is a perfect fit with Greg’s talent; before this boomer-generation MP was elected, he was a finance guy, managing investment portfolios and tech startups.
Last election — Greg acknowledges, with a mix of bewilderment and regret — all the Conservatives’ policy work went unnoticed because of the politics of the moment. “All the policy exercises we went through before the last election,” he reports, “and there were still people who said, ‘Well, you guys didn’t have any policy.’ We had deeper policy … than any other election I’ve been involved with.”
Several good Conservative policies were snapped up by the Carney government, I note. Greg laughs, and assures me the role of opposition in a democracy is to present ideas that make government better.
“Pierre Poilievre even said, ‘If you take our ideas, so much the better, because it’s for the better of the Canadian people,” Greg shares. “And they are taking some of our ideas, when you think about what they’re announcing.” But, he adds, “there’s a difference between announcement and implementation.”
Recommendations generated by Greg’s economic council — for regulatory reform, taxation reform and a trade strategy that works for Canada — are reviewed by a caucus advisory committee, to make sure elected Conservatives advance an issue together.
The council’s economic policy suggestions include: deferring capital gains for investors who re-invest in another Canadian opportunity; reducing the risk of fiscal leakage (the use of taxpayer money to subsidize profits and intellectual property that leaves the country); reducing the size and role of government bureaucracy; ensuring national sovereignty of intellectual property; and removing the industrial carbon tax.
Canada has a problem with governments making top-down decisions with taxpayer money, Greg asserts, pointing to the electric vehicle mandate as one example. “It’s over $50 billion of government money that’s gone into a sector that doesn’t seem to be taking off at this point … it was a mandate that didn’t really work, as far as reality is concerned.” The electrical system wasn’t ready, he says, the dots didn’t all connect.
“The public has a notion that people are playing politics,” Greg concludes, but as His Majesty’s loyal opposition, “we want to make sure this notion is dispelled in its entirely as far as the Canadian economy goes. When we’re building the Canadian economy, we will be 100 per cent behind this government in getting things done, for the betterment of all Canadians.”
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