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John Baird decries irresponsible Japanese election

Oh, not really. But in case you were wondering what the Transport Minister had to say at a press conference here in Ottawa this morning, a few excerpts from the transcript.

It would be irresponsible to interrupt our important work on the economy with an unnecessary election … the last thing, the very last thing this country needs is an unnecessary election … You know, election threats and election posturing and political posturing, I don’t think is what the economy needs … We have got to stay really focused and what that requires is the government to be on the job, every day, making things happen and that is why an unnecessary election is I think the last thing that the country needs … we have been working very hard with premier Dexter’s government, very well in Nova Scotia, recently approving a good number of projects to go forward and we are working the same in British Columbia, but they were delayed by a good number of months because of the political instability that elections generate. You can’t negotiate those types of things during an election campaign. You can’t make announcements during an election campaign and frankly both provinces took a considerable number of months after the election was over before a new cabinet was sworn in and a new minister was appointed …  I think, you know, backing down from triggering an early election that nobody wants is positive and constructive and that is what I think Canadians want … We have seen some positive signs in the auto sector. I think that has been good, but we are not out of the woods yet and I think that is why Canadians want all hands on deck, fighting for our economy and not – and not precipitating an early election.

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