Liberal leader Bob Rae calls Harper government "dictatorial"

Liberal leader Bob Rae accused the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper of being “dictatorial” in a speech today in Vancouver, listing health care and Aboriginal justice as key issues going forward for the Liberal Party of Canada. 

In a speech at the downtown YWCA this morning, the ex-New Democrat and former Ontario premier laid out his policy directions for his party, which was devastated in the last federal elections. He slammed the Conservative government for imposing a “command and control” style of leadership upon provinces and First Nations.
 
“We now have what I call dictatorial federalism,” Rae said to applause. “It's my way, or too bad – you're on your own.
 
“This is the most command and control – we will tell you what to do, if you disagree we will pillory you, we will victimize you," he said of the current administration. 

Rae focused much of his policy announcement on the issues facing Indigenous peoples across Canada, attacking the Conservative government's response to a housing crisis on Attawapiskat First Nation, in northern Ontario.
 
“We have not embraced Aboriginal culture ... nor appreciated the Indigenous peoples' deep sense of injustice, which now has to spur is to action,” Rae told a small crowd of roughly 50 supporters. “It's time for us to revisit the entire Indian Act, the entire colonial administration.
 
“There has to be respect for governance. Every relationship is based on recognition.”

When an audience member asked Rae about the Enbridge Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline, he accused the government of undermining the public hearing process by attacking witnesses and people with concerns about the project.

"Some of the title of the land across which the pipelines are flowing pertains to First Nations people - you can't carry on a position that does not respect that title," he said. "What Mr. Harper's doing now puts into danger all the integrity of the environmental process...

"You cannot keep attacking people appearing as witnesses or people asking questions."