Prime Minister Stephen Harper basked in praise from Fox News for Canada’s better financial system during the first in a series of U.S. media interviews ahead of this week’s global economic summit in London.
In his second interview in a month with the conservative news network, Harper trumpeted the more cautious banking regulations north of the border, saying Canada is likely to emerge from the recession as “probably the only truly free-market financial system in the world.”
Harper told Fox News interviewer Chris Wallace that despite the downturn, Ottawa will by 2012 put in place “the lowest corporate tax rates in the G7 and that’s our government’s objective.”
Asked whether Ottawa’s approach is superior to U.S. President Barack Obama’s “plan to raise taxes on the wealthy and some businesses,” Harper demurred, saying “I’m not going to be drawn into commenting on American domestic policy.
“Let me just say that the United States has a significantly different problem than Canada,” Harper said.
“Even before this recession the United States was running a significant budgetary deficit. Canada is in budgetary deficit now only because of the recession, only because of stimulus measures.
“And we will come out of it — we will go back into surplus position — when the economy recovers,” the prime minister said.
“So there is no need in Canada to raise taxes. We have not got the structural budgetary deficit that exists in the United States and obviously limits the administration’s options.”
Wallace went on to praise Canadian banking regulation, noting the absence of Canadian bank bailouts and “strong activist regulation.”
