Gary Doer's NDP edge close to Steven Harper's Conservatives

We had a most unusual week in the legislature with Gary Doer and his provincial NDP edging up to Steven Harper. It began with Gary Doer expressing "general satisfaction" with the Harper Conservative's federal budget - an unusual move since the budget raised taxes on those in the lowest income bracket (basically those with low and middle incomes). The federal Liberals and NDP, in contrast, labelled the Harper budget as bad for workers, the environment, for child care and for students.

As the week progressed we saw the NDP Minister of Highways - Ron Lemieux saying how pleased he was that the federal Conservatives had seen the light. Next, the NDP Minister of Agriculture, Rosann Wowchuk was a cheerleader for the Conservative agriculture budget and said she was looking foward to her meetings with the federal agriculture minister. Finally, the NDP Minister of Justice, Gord McIntosh, led the parade in support of Vic Toews and the federal justice minister's efforts to build bigger jails.