Loyola Hearn & John Efford - Two of a Kind.

"Take it or leave it." - Federal Liberal cabinet minister John Efford attempting to pressure the province of Newfoundland and Labrador into accepting an Atlantic Accord deal that would have included a cap tied to Ontario's fiscal capacity (the same sort of cap now introduced in the federal Conservatives budget).

John Efford conveniently retired from politics within months of that comment and did not run in the following election.

"The province is losing nothing now, We have until 2012 with the Atlantic Accord benefits uncapped..." - Loyola Hearn attempting to sell the new Harper budget (including a fiscal cap) to Newfoundland and Labrador on March 20 2007.

Already there are calls for Loyola Hearn's resignation in the wake of the federal budget and his clear support for it. During an interview Hearn also went on the offensive blaming the provinces for not agreeing to the plan his PM hoped to put in place and warned premier williams that any anti-election campaign he might have in mind "works both ways". That sort of threat might not have been a politically astute move in reference to a sitting premier who is supported by nearly 75% of the electorate. It might just backfire and help rally the troops against Mr. Hearn. Time will tell.

At least Conservative member Norm Doyle had the intelligence, just days before the federal budget was delivered, to announce that he wouldn't be running in the next election. Tell me Loyola, is your cushy cabinet position really worth the price of selling out your people? I hope so because I doubt you'll be sitting in that after the next election.

Simply put, Stephen Harper and his government members broke a written promise made to several premiers of Canada. Whether anyone agrees with the premise of removing non-renewable resource revenues from equalization calculations or not, it doesn't take away the fact that the Prime Minister lied to the premiers of the provinces in writing and he is being supported in his lies by MPs who were elected by the people of those provinces.

It's one thing to go door to door in an election campaign and smoothly lead people to believe you are concerned with their issues. All politicians do that. They all use words like, "I'll take that under advisement" or "I fully support that concept and once elected I'll see what I can do". They all do that but they don't all put a clear cut promise in writing, sign on the dotted line and have that written promised delivered to the premiers of 3 provinces, one of whom was the head of the federation of provinces at the time.

While the common approach taken by candidates is reprehensible, the approach taken by Stephen Harper and supported by his MPs is nothing less than treason.

Canada is a federation. It is based on the concept that all the proivinces are partners and that the leaders of each province (the first ministers) play a pivotal role in the federation. What do the recent actions of Stephen Harper, Loyola Hearn and the other members of the Conservative governement who support an out and out lie to the premiers of the provinces. What does it say that this government made written committment in order to get elected and then broke that committment in order to ensure that they would get re-elected?

Loyola Hearn isn't the only one who should resign. The entire Conservative government should be forced to resign in shame, much the same way U.S. president Richard Nixon resigned during the Watergate scandal in the 1970's.

If they don't resign of their own accord serious consideration should be given to removing them all from office and perhaps even laying charges in connection with the elections act, or has the Country gone so far down hill that buying votes has become not only legal but acceptable?

If you would like to let Loyola Hearn know how you feel about his stand on the equalization issue you can email him at: Hearn.L@parl.gc.ca