Stephen Harper is Ready to Rebuild Canada

You wanted change Canada? Brace yourself!

The CBC reports that Harper is ready to start "rebuilding this great country".

Call me paranoid but I read a lot into those words. The word 'rebuild' implies that the country is broken. It also implies that there are going to be a lot of changes to fix those broken parts.

On Monday night, Harper promised to get to work implementing his top campaign priorities. He said his first act in Parliament will be to propose a federal accountability act.

That will be followed by his plan to cut the GST, provide a child-care allowance to families, toughen criminal sentencing and establish a patient wait-time guarantee, he said.

He also said in a speech today that "the West has wanted in, the West is in now".

Premier Ralph Klein said Tuesday the new Conservative government will give Western Canada a stronger voice in Ottawa. He said he spoke to Harper before the election and outlined some of Alberta's priorities: opposition to the Kyoto accord and support for an elected Senate.

"From my perspective, I think that we'll have a government that is more receptive to the views of Western Canada, but hopefully receptive to the views of all Canadians," he said.

Jason Clemens, director of fiscal studies at the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, said a lot of people in Western Canada have a long shopping list.

That should mean more representation in the cabinet as well as the senate.

Analysts and Conservative MPs say that even with a minority government, Harper should be able to get some of his campaign promises done.

"I just don't think that the opposition parties now are going to be rushing to the polls or forcing an election," Calgary Centre MP Lee Richardson said. "I think Stephen Harper is going to be able to carry out his agenda.

"It's an agenda we laid before the Canadian public. There's no hidden agenda here."

That word "agenda" sounds more ominously like payback to me.

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