Prime Minister Stephen Harper flatly refused to meet with the provincial premiers in Halifax last week.
They tried repeatedly without success to get him to meet them.
They wanted to talk to him about the state of the global economy and its effects on Canadians, but Harper was not interested.
He goes to Europe to talk world economics, but provincial premiers? Forget about it!
Harper was willing to meet provincial premiers one at a time, as he did Jean Charest last month.
But meet all of them together at one time, at a federal-provincial conference as they wanted? No way!
It's been three years in a row that he has snubbed them, refusing to attend federal-provincial conferences.
He figures he's the boss and doesn't need any advice from provincial premiers.
And there's no way he wants to hear them whine at his government for more money. Last month he cut $36 billion from federal health payments to provinces, something they would be bound to complain about.
He remembers the good old days of federal-provincial conferences when provincial premiers ganged up against the federal government, and he doesn't want that happening to him.
It doesn't matter how many times they tell him that Canada is a federation and the federal government should accept the help of the premiers in the development of national policies.
It was not interesting either for Trudeau, Mulroney, Chretien to suffer slings and arrows at provincial conferences but they accepted it as their duty as prime minister in a country that calls itself a federation.
Harper prefers to govern in a unilateral manner, as if he were alone.
So the premiers asked him if he wouldn't meet them this past month, might he meet them in November.
Harper simply sent a messenger who told them "no" without any explanation.
