Premier Ghiz Criticizes Harper for Failing to Attend Premiers’ Meeting

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The chair of Canada’s premiers meeting, Prince Edward Island Premier Robert Ghiz, criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not attending the meeting held with Canada’s provinces, pointing out that the he has made a habit of avoiding the first ministers but still finds time for hockey games. Prince Edward Island Premier Robert Ghiz, who is soon stepping down from the position, openly criticized Mr. Harper for repeatedly failing to meet with Canada’s premiers as a group.

In his remarks, Mr. Ghiz taunted that “it’s too bad that the Prime Minister’s not here. Maybe it’s my fault. If I had planned it a little bit better, maybe I would have planned this meeting around the world junior hockey championships and he might have been here.” Furthermore, the Premier detailed a list of examples of Conservative and Liberal Prime Ministers working well with the provinces, including John A. Macdonald, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin. Mr. Ghiz stated that “there’s going to be an election in six months maybe. The Prime Minister’s not going to be there forever, even if he does win again. So let’s hope that we’ll see some nation building in the future.”

Quite noticeably, Mr. Harper’s two key allies among the premiers, i.e. Alberta’s Jim Prentice and Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall, were not present at Friday’s Council of the Federation meetings in Ottawa. Consequently, it gave room to other Premiers and the Prime Minister’s more vocal critics, like Mr. Ghiz and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, to criticize policies and decisions made by Ottawa.