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Harper concerned by rising C$
Wed Jan 18, 9:33 AM ET
QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) - The front-runner in Canada's election campaign, Conservative leader Stephen Harper, voiced concern about the rising Canadian dollar and said he wanted the country to stay competitive.
"I have some concern about that -- not necessarily the strong dollar (but) the rising dollar," he told Reuters in an interview on the campaign ahead of the January 23 election.
"I've often been concerned about how the dollar creates its own economic forces. I was a critic for many years of using a constantly falling (Canadian) dollar to mask productivity performance, and so that's an area we have to look at quite carefully."
He said some exporters were "feeling the pressure."
Asked what could be done to restrain the currency, he said: "I probably would want to restrain my views on that. I think I'd want to get some input from the (eventual) minister of finance and the Bank of Canada on how best to proceed," he said.
"But we want Canada to stay competitive and we want to make sure the dollar is enhancing that," Harper said, pausing in his hotel room before flying to southern Ontario for an evening rally.
Harper also said he wants a process to be set up that would enable bank mergers to be evaluated independently -- not by politicians -- according to a range of clearly established, objective public policy concerns.
"I don't think banks should be in the dark forever," he said. The incumbent minority Liberal government had promised to establish a bank merger policy but postponed it until after the election.
Asked if he might introduce broad-based personal income tax cuts, he said the Conservatives would be sticking with the policy in their platform -- predominantly a sales-tax cut -- for the foreseeable future.
But as for income tax cuts down the road, he said: "If we have fiscal flexibility, we'll always look at that."
($1=$1.16 Canadian)
Wed Jan 18, 9:33 AM ET
QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) - The front-runner in Canada's election campaign, Conservative leader Stephen Harper, voiced concern about the rising Canadian dollar and said he wanted the country to stay competitive.
"I have some concern about that -- not necessarily the strong dollar (but) the rising dollar," he told Reuters in an interview on the campaign ahead of the January 23 election.
"I've often been concerned about how the dollar creates its own economic forces. I was a critic for many years of using a constantly falling (Canadian) dollar to mask productivity performance, and so that's an area we have to look at quite carefully."
He said some exporters were "feeling the pressure."
Asked what could be done to restrain the currency, he said: "I probably would want to restrain my views on that. I think I'd want to get some input from the (eventual) minister of finance and the Bank of Canada on how best to proceed," he said.
"But we want Canada to stay competitive and we want to make sure the dollar is enhancing that," Harper said, pausing in his hotel room before flying to southern Ontario for an evening rally.
Harper also said he wants a process to be set up that would enable bank mergers to be evaluated independently -- not by politicians -- according to a range of clearly established, objective public policy concerns.
"I don't think banks should be in the dark forever," he said. The incumbent minority Liberal government had promised to establish a bank merger policy but postponed it until after the election.
Asked if he might introduce broad-based personal income tax cuts, he said the Conservatives would be sticking with the policy in their platform -- predominantly a sales-tax cut -- for the foreseeable future.
But as for income tax cuts down the road, he said: "If we have fiscal flexibility, we'll always look at that."
($1=$1.16 Canadian)