There are many pressing issues in this file and the prime minister has told me I have all the decision-making powers and freedoms of a regular minister and so to that end I will be as soon as possible visiting with my provincial counterparts and also with the stakeholders,
It's really with the Legion now, to obtain 66 per cent of the funding from provincial and federal sources. That goes back to the original three-way partnership proposed last fall.
We're certainly going to have to have a look at what was going on in provincial cities,
Minister MacKay, as you all know, has deep roots in Atlantic Canada and is very familiar with PEI and its provincial government. He will serve Islanders well in our new cabinet.
Our neighbor Canada has 2,200 troops serving in Afghanistan. Canada has also assumed responsibility for the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, which was originally established by our own military.
When my party won the elections convincingly on February 18th, 2008, we immediately reached out to other parties to form broad-based coalitions of national unity in the National Assembly and in the four provincial assemblies.
Federal and provincial programs that benefit the city of Ottawa are financed by hard working, tax paying Canadians. Those tax dollars shouldn't be spent to support workers in other countries, when there are Canadians that can do the work.
My sense is there's a lot of momentum behind this desire for democracy here, ... We've had town hall meetings, selection of provincial councils ... all over this country. There's a real thirst for democracy.
If Ontario needs a first-rate post-secondary education system, then in our view, the bulk of the funding for that should come from general revenues of the provincial government.
I had been going to school at St. Michael's for six years since Grade 7 and schooling and playing for the Buzzers (of the Provincial Jr. A league) was a good mix that I wanted to keep going. Balancing hockey and school at a place like St. Mike's, I did not know anything different.