'The people of the North are the North'

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion slammed Stephen Harper's northern policies last weekend, saying the Tory prime minister's approach to Arctic issues is an insult to the people of the North.

Dion who campaigned in Iqaluit with Liberal candidate Kirt Ejesiak on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, took particular aim at the oft-quoted phrase that Harper uses to explain his government's approach to Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic: "use it or lose it."

Dion says it reveals that Harper doesn't understand how Arctic people, especially the Inuit, see themselves.

"How can you lose something when you are that thing? The people of the North are the North," Dion told reporters at a press conference held this past Sunday morning at the end of the Iqaluit breakwater.

And instead of focusing only on military action, Dion said a Liberal government would focus on a long list of social, economic and diplomatic measures.

To that that end, he promised the following:

• a revival of the Kelowna accord;
• implementation of the Inuit partnership accord, a deal the previous Liberal government signed with Inuit Tapriit Kanatami in 2005;
• more support for aboriginal languages;
• a plan to forgive the student loans owed by doctors and nurses who agree to work in northern locations;
• more bursaries for northern students;
• more money for literacy and housing;
• an increase in the value of the northern residents tax deduction from $6,000 to $7,000;
• $25 million to complete a stalled small craft harbour construction program in Nunavut;
• a strategy to protect women against violence, rehabiliate offenders and help victims of violence;
• new fixed-wing rescue aircraft, to be based in the North;
• completion of the mapping of the Arctic seabed;
• a reinstatement of the circumpolar affairs ambassador position;
• an aggressive diplomatic approach on sovereignty that would include upgraded participation in the eight-nation Arctic Council.

On the last point, Dion praised the work of Lloyd Axworthy, the ex-minister of foreign affairs who chaired the Arctic Council's first ministerial meeting in Iqaluit in 1998.

"The Arctic Council is the means by which Canada will show that we will have international law in the Arctic," Dion said.

At a Liberal event Oct. 4, Ejesiak repeated the five-point plan that he's campaigning on in Nunavut.

That plan empasizes the following:

• education and job training linked to economic development;
• more work on building social housing and relieving poverty;
• better daycare for Nunavut as part of a national daycare plan;
• better health care, especially for elders;
• better environmental protection.

On the environment, Ejesiak and Dion once again defended the Liberal Party's Green Shift carbon tax plan as the best way to encourage the conservation of carbon-emitting fossil fuels.

And Ejesiak again pointed to the tax benefits that a tax shift would bring to Nunavut residents.

"I'll say it again. I said it last time. The carbon tax is something that will bring tax cuts into Nunavut," Ejesiak said.

"We encourage local residents to sift through all the misinformation and fearmongering, because the Green Shift to us will be more money back for people and families, more money back for people living in poverty," Ejesiak said.

And Dion attacked the Conservative approach to climate change, saying it's a plan "to do nothing."

"It's a false plan, according to all the experts who looked at it," Dion said.

He also took a swipe at NDP leader Jack Layton, whose party is now campaigning to replace the Liberals as the official opposition.

"The only way to replace Stephen Harper is to have the Liberals and myself as the prime minister and the government," Dion said.

And he criticized an NDP proposal to increase taxes on corporations, calling it a "job-killer."

"With Mr. Layton, we share a lot of values – but he is playing with monopoly money," Dion said.