[Newsbot]

<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="/link.php?id=30065" target="_blank">Stephen Harper caps secretive visit</a> (click to view)

<strong>Category:</strong> <a href="/news/topic/14-misc-cdn" target="_blank">Misc CDN</a>
<strong>Posted By: </strong> <a href="/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=Hyack" target="_blank">Hyack</a>
<strong>Date: </strong> 2008-02-09 12:04:16
<strong>Canadian</strong>

[kenmore]

I wonder if he will put that picture in his little narcissitic hall of fame.. ? actually Bonhomme would look good in Parliament.. ps stevie thanks for the cash...

[sasquatch2]

HEE HEE HAW HAW HEE HEE HAW HAW HEE HEE HAW HAW HEE HEE HAW HAW HEE HEE HAW HAW

You guys are certainly getting desperate!

What constitutes this as SECRET?

If attending the Quebec Winter Carnavel and handing out flapjacks is low profile, then Harper's RCMP security detail, badly needs lessons on discretion.

[PluggyRug]

Secret? This was on the news yesterday.

[ridenrain]

I just finished reading the whole thing and it calls it secretive twice, right becore it says:

$1:

Harper waded through a welcoming crowd and handed out flapjacks

Was it a secret crowd, looking for secret flapjacks?
Bit of shitty media there?

Nothing about brown paper envelopes in cafe's though.

[mtbr]

Yeah it was a real "secret"


Productive' meeting for Harper, Charest
Free trade with Europe, development fund among subjects
KEVIN DOUGHERTY, The Gazette
Published: 11 hours ago

QUEBEC - Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Premier Jean Charest for about an hour and a quarter Friday night, aides to the two leaders have confirmed.

Harper, who provides little notice to the media on his movements, also handed out piggies in a blanket - sausages wrapped in pancakes - at an outdoor Western Breakfast yesterday morning.

Reporters were given notice on Thursday of the breakfast event, sponsored by the city of Calgary as part of Quebec City's annual winter carnival. r.


"It was a very productive meeting," said Dimitri Soudas, Harper's press secretary.

"They discussed a whole range of issues, notably, obviously, the political situation in Quebec City and in Ottawa, both being minority governments."

Hugo d'Amours, Charest's press secretary, confirmed that the political situation was on the agenda.

While there is no provincial Conservative Party in Quebec, former Quebec Liberal minister Lawrence Cannon is Harper's transport minister and provincial Liberals worked for the election of Tory Denis Lebel in a Roberval by-election last September.

But most of Harper's Quebec caucus members also support Mario Dumont's Action démocratique du Québec.

Harper met Dumont in December in his Rivière-du-Loup riding. With the possibility of a federal election in the spring, the prime minister also wants to maintain close ties with Charest.

Soudas said the two discussed the economy, focusing on Charest's proposal for a Canada-European Union free trade agreement and Charest's demand for more federal money to help Quebec's forestry and manufacturing sectors.

"Our government has raised the issue (of free trade with Europe) at all levels on several occasions," Soudas said.

"The two agreed to work together in order to move forward on that file."

On forestry and manufacturing, which have been battered by the rising Canadian dollar and the economic slowdown in the United States, they agreed to sign an agreement soon so Quebec gets its $217-million share of Ottawa's $1-billion community development fund.

They also discussed Quebec City's 400th anniversary this year and the Francophonie summit in Quebec City next fall.

Soudas added that Harper meets Charest often, revealing the two met last December, as a prelude to the Jan. 11 first ministers' dinner at 24 Sussex Drive. Asked why the December meeting was not announced, Soudas said: "No one asked. It's that simple."

Yesterday, Charest was in his Sherbrooke riding while Harper was handing out piggies in blankets prepared by Canadian Heritage Minister and Quebec City MP Josée Verner.

With a smiling Bonhomme Carnaval, the winter carnival mascot, looming behind him, Harper posed for photos with well-wishers.

Brian Volant, an Innu from Betsiamites, about 300 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, offered Harper a dream catcher.

Said Volant: "He looked at me and said: 'Hey, that's a great gift!' ''

kdougherty@thegazette.canwest.com

[dino_bobba_renno]

Ahh, i see where all of this is heading now. Secret visits, hiden agenda ... by god, I think Harper's plotting to become the king Flap Jacks! THAT BASTARD!