Ottawa

Stella Ambler’s maiden metaphor

Conservative rookie Stella Ambler was given the honour of moving the motion in reply to the Speech from the Throne on Friday. She decided to go with an extended hockey metaphor.

If I may invoke a hockey metaphor, which seems appropriate with the whole country riveted on the Stanley Cup finals, the success of our Conservative team rests first and foremost on our great chemistry. It is true that we are little short of left-wingers but our members from communities in every region of the country have excelled at every position, and our captain, as the best ones do, has raised the game of all of his teammates.

When Canada was dragged into the worst global recession in a half century, our team showed great poise. We stuck to our long-term game plan for low taxes and economic growth. In the short term, we successfully finessed the recession with a balanced attack of stimulus spending on public infrastructure, support for the hardest hit workers and communities and skilful stickhandling of our financial system through the international banking and currency crisis…

Some of the other teams in this tournament, including traditional powerhouses, have not fared so well. Their recoveries have been slowed because they are badly out of fiscal shape, carrying way too much debt. We take little comfort in this victory on these terms because, unless and until those sovereign debt levels are seriously addressed and significantly reduced, the global economic recovery will remain at grave risk, and, once again, Canada could be dragged into an international economic crisis through no fault of its own.

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