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St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Thank you Bruce (Templeton).
It wasn’t so long ago Bruce was introducing Bill Clinton to the Board of Trade. Today it’s me.
This is not a promising trend, Bruce.
Thank you to Bruce and Nancy (Healy) and the rest of the team.
Yvonne Jones is here today, and so are two members of our Newfoundland caucus—Judy Foote and Siobhan Coady.
I know Siobhan is no stranger to the Board of Trade. Thank you for letting us borrow her—we’re not giving her back.
Newfoundland and Labrador has been part of my Leadership from the day I moved into the job. I mean that seriously—Rick Mercer carried my mattress.
And ever since then I’ve looked to Siobhan and Judy and the rest of the team to put this province at the centre of our work—and they’ve done a wonderful job.
I want to share our party’s ideas for Canada’s future.
We’re in a new world—
Where fossil fuels are expensive.
Carbon has a price.
Brain power and intellectual property drive our economy.
And the markets of the future are in China and India, not just the United States.
Canadians are ready to take on this new world. Just look at the ocean technology sector here in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Firms like PanGeo and Marport doing acoustic imaging and Sonar. ICAN exporting cutting edge navigation systems.
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are pushing ahead, innovating the way forward. You’ve got strong leadership from Premier Williams, but you need a federal government that keeps up with you, too.
A government that plans for the future, instead of just scheming for its own re-election.
A government as compassionate, creative, competent and courageous as the Canadian people.
Canadians deserve nothing less.
Instead, we have Stephen Harper. He doesn’t believe in government at all.
Oh, he likes power. Everything is political with him.
But Stephen Harper doesn’t believe in the positive power of government to create opportunity and hope for all Canadians.
He doesn’t. Liberals do.
He’s been in power for four years, and you know what he’ll be remembered for? His lasting legacy?
His attack ads.
In Atlantic Canada, you understand that better than anyone.
Stephen Harper attacked this province in the last budget. He’s got an MP over in Halifax calling the unemployed names and mocking the homeless.
But Newfoundlanders have said ‘no’ to Stephen Harper’s politics of spite—and no one in Atlantic Canada will ever forget his remark about the region’s “culture of defeat”
No judgment was ever more false than that one.
Stephen Harper has spent four years blinded by his own tactics. He’s got no positive vision for the future beyond the six o’clock news.
Look at the economy.
We’re in the worst recession in decades. We needed an economic plan that would create jobs, help struggling families, and start building a prosperous future.
What we got was a Conservative re-election plan, with big blue billboards and giant cheques.
The deficit’s gone from zero to 32 to 50 to 56 billion—Stephen Harper’s spending more than any government in Canadian history.
And what do we have to show for it?
Where are the investments that will create jobs for our kids?
What, really, has Harper bought with your kids’ money?
With Stephen Harper, you get half the leadership at twice the price. He’s all cheques—and no balance.
The other countries are preparing for the future. They are investing today to create the jobs of tomorrow. They are investing in the knowledge and the know-how of their citizens.
Other countries aren’t standing still. But Stephen Harper is.
Yesterday I set out our Liberal strategy for reducing carbon pollution, protecting our environment, and creating thousands of well-paying clean energy jobs.
We have to act now. We’re already being left behind.
In the U.S., President Obama is putting six times more per capita into clean energy and research than the Conservatives.
Canada has invested less in renewable energy per capita than the State of Alaska.
So when it comes to clean energy, Stephen Harper isn’t just behind Barack Obama. He’s behind Sarah Palin.
Mr. Harper believes Canadians have to chose between economic progress and environmental protection. Liberals believe, on the contrary, that investing in green technology and renewable energy today will create the economy of tomorrow.
Look at another area where we need to lead—the digital economy.
In 1997, we were the first country in the world to connect all our schools to the internet.
Now we rank twenty-eighth out of thirty major economies in terms of broadband internet speed and cost. Twenty-eighth.
Only Mexico and Poland are worse.
We’ve got to hook up every rural, remote and northern community in Canada—so we can build opportunity in every region.
If Stephen Harper won’t do it, we will.
We’ve had four years of cheap politics, not good government. And that comes at a cost.
Lost opportunity. Lost time. And a growing gap between the wealthiest few and the rest of us.
Because there’s a country’s worth of stories that Stephen Harper isn’t telling.
St. John’s has weathered the recession better than most places.
But it’s a different story out in the outports and smaller towns, proud communities struggling to hold on to their young people.
It’s been a tough time for lobster fishermen in PEI and northern New Brunswick.
Forestry workers in New Brunswick, Quebec, and northern Ontario.
Manufacturing workers across southern Ontario. Windsor, Chatham, St.Catherine’s.
Hard-working Canadians who have never known unemployment don’t know if they’ll ever work again, if they’ll ever see a pension, if they’ll be able to put their kids through college or university and give them opportunities they never had themselves.
These Canadians matter to Liberals. They matter to me.
I was out in Richmond, B.C., last week. I talked with seniors who can’t afford rent. We thought we beat senior poverty in the 90s. This recession brought it back.
We can’t allow a difficult year to leave us weaker and more divided, meaner as a people.
We need to unite our country with compassion, so we can move forward with confidence
And we need a forward-looking government to lead the way.
We Liberals believe in government as nation-building, and we have the record to prove it: Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, official bilingualism and multiculturalism, and the best public finances in the world.
Together we built the country we love—and we won’t let Harper take it apart.
People ask what we’d do differently.
It starts with learning—with giving every child an equal shot. No matter who you are, or where you live, or what you have, your kids should have access to world-class early learning and childcare.
We’ll invest in our universities and colleges—not just for students, but for the researchers and innovators whose ideas will fuel the next generation of our economy.
And we’ll build a learning society that harnesses the talent of every single Canadian—Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, rural and urban, east and west, from every background and every region of the country.
We’ll do it by lifting the cap on Aboriginal education.
By investing in rural broadband, cell coverage, and connectivity.
Language training for new Canadians.
Skills training for our workforce.
And the most significant investment in clean-energy jobs in our country’s history.
That’s how we’ll rebuild our economy—so that we can strengthen the social programs that tie us together as a country—the pensions and healthcare we want to count on for ourselves and for our children.
That’s how we’ll build the Canada we want—the Canada we deserve. 2009 is an anniversary year for Newfoundland and Labrador. 60 years ago, you chose Canada.
Back then, when Joey Smallwood argued for Confederation, he talked about, “the great gulf which separates what we have and are from what we feel we should have and be.”
Smallwood’s challenge has become a challenge for our whole country. We’re still trying to figure out how we can become the even greater nation that we know we can be.
Overcoming that gap, between where we are now and where we know we can be, won’t be easy. It will require hard work and vision and leadership.
That’s the kind of leadership Liberals can provide.
Leadership means thinking big again.
Restoring Canada’s ambition.
2017 marks the 150th anniversary of our federation. We need to ask ourselves: What kind of country will we be? What kind of country can we be?
Next March, in Montreal, the Liberal Party is going to bring together some of the country’s brightest minds and ask:
What kind of Canada do we want in 2017—and what we need to do today and tomorrow to get there?
But the meeting in Montreal isn’t the whole story. I’m going to hit the road in January and listen to Canadians right across the country about the Canada we want to be.
Because millions of us are looking for a government that thinks big, dares to dream and works with Canadians to prepare a great future for our children.
A government that sets out to make Canada the best educated, the healthiest, the greenest, and the most international society on earth.
These are goals worthy of a great people.
And these are goals we can achieve. We’ve done it before. And together, we will do it again.
Thanks for listening.