Wednesday Night #793
WESTMOUNT HOME PAGE Russell Williams kicked off the evening by introducing Tom Davis,
Progressive Conservative candidate for Westmount-Ville Marie, who has lived in
riding all his adult life, has been very very active in the P.C., past
president of P.C. riding association for many years and is said to have a good
chance of being the first Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament
representing Westmount since Ross Webster in 1958.
Various topics were introduced. Tom Davis joined in and offered opinions both personal and political on many. Unlike the polite but reserved relationship normally given visiting politicians, the Wednesday night regulars of all political stripes were quick to welcome Tom as one of the group, probably because of sincerity with which he intervened and his willingness to acknowledge insufficient knowledge on any topic with which he was unfamiliar.
For these reasons, this account cannot distinguish between questions
directed to our guest, those in which he participated as a member of the group
and those in which he chose not to participate.
Job Creation, the Deficit and the National Economy:
Views varied on these topics. There was less than total agreement on
the wisdom of the Progressive Conservative plan to cut taxes in order to put
money into the hands of people who create jobs, and in the interest of
national unity, to reinvest some of the money taken out of the
fields of health and education. Tom Davis emphasized that the Conservative
Party was not considering returning annual funding for health and education to
pre-1993 levels but, to increase it to 12.5 billion. A guest pointed out the
folly of cutting health education funding in order to maintain and sustain
therapeutic services. It was noted however, that the positive effects of
health education should not be made at the expense of therapeutic services for
an increasingly aging population. It was also stated that as a price for health care spending, the federal government appears to have abdicated its right to set national health care standards.
Some of the economists and industrialists in the group held that Canada is currently benefiting from an upturn in the U.S. economy and that we must continue to put our financial house in order before a change in the direction of the United States economy again leaves us in a difficult situation. There were some predictions of interest rate increases in the U.S., including possibly two during the remainder of the current year. Those with opposing views expressed a strong belief in the Canadian economy today and that with evidence of the generation of new domestic demand as opposed to export demand, there will be an inevitable growth in job rate, modest increase in interest rate, increase in wage rate (3.6%), but not sufficiently high to impact on inflation. It is conceivable that employment rates in Canada might be halved to equal that of the United States over a considerable period of time. We should not look at debt growth in isolation, but only in comparison with Canadian assets.
Cautious support was expressed by some guests of the P.C. plan. While
it was pointed out that this was the only serious alternative to what is being
done by Paul Martin, there was some concern that Mr. Charest might have been
unduly influenced by the Harris doctrine in Ontario.
Certainly, there was no expressed opposition to the desirability of smaller
government. It was pointed out however, that where basic services are
provided by the government, the jobs created to provided by those essential
services were just as valuable as those created in the private sector.
Language Issues:
Tom Davis expressed the view that Canada should support use of
minority languages, that the more people able to use their mother tongue in
communicating with the federal government, the stronger the federation. He
would not however, encourage official use of languages other
than English and French until we solve our own identity problem.
Gun Control:
Tom Davis explained that the Progressive Conservative party is not
opposed gun control. His party would eliminate the sale of automatic weapons,
insist on mandatory registration of hand guns and mandatory training as a
prerequisite to the purchase of any gun of any description.
There was opposition expressed to any legislation requiring registration, and
the unexpressed view of some guests that firearms of any description should be
outlawed except for use by the military and police.
Religious School Boards:
While his party has no policy on this matter, Tom Davis expressed his
personal view that he would not support the change to linguistic school boards
until the National assembly ensures linguistic protection.
A well known Westmount Conservative and highly admired guest expressed the opinion that the only way that Québec could be brought into the Canadian fold would be under the leadership of a prime minister respected throughout the country. For those in the audience who might not have caught on to the subtlety of the foregoing, she mentioned the name of the leader of a national party, namely Jean Charest.
To any who might have doubted his ability to communicate with Francophones in their own first language, a reasonably lengthy dialogue in French certainly dispelled all doubts.
The length of time spent in friendly exchanges after the end of the
formalities evening was ample evidence the success of the evening.
by Herbert Bercovitz
Tom Davis Westmount-Ville-Marie candidat
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