Earlier this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Nova Scotia Premier Rodney Macdonald stood side-by-side in the foyer of the House of Commons to announce that they had pretty much sorted out their differences over the Atlantic Accord and equalization payments.
Bill Casey, the MP from Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, had stood on the side of Macdonald and many Nova Scotians in this dispute and felt so strongly about it that he voted against his own government’s budget over it. That act got him turfed from the Conservative caucus.
So, now that things with Nova Scotia are patched up, we asked the Prime Minister this week if he was ready to bury the hatchet with Casey:
No.
Mr. Casey made demands that he knew were incompatible with our budget, that he knew that this government would not agree to and has not agreed to.
Mr. Casey is not welcome into our caucus and just so I can be as clear as I can be on it, when there is a federal election there will be a Conservative candidate in Mr. Casey's riding and it will not be Mr. Casey.
And for those who just can’t get enough of this whole equalization debate, we have for you a copy of the letter Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wrote to his counterpart in Nova Scotia, Michael Baker, to “conclude our discussions on the application of the 2007 Budget to Nova Scotia”.