Given Canadian airways will be co-opted by the opening of Parliament in less than 1/2 hour, the news the 16 page throne speech allegedly being leaked is no surprise.

• it’s not possible for the government to meet Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto climate-change accord, but it will bring in measures to fight greenhouse gases.
• Tackling Violent Crime bill will include measures on impaired driving, age of sexual consent, stricter bail conditions, and mandatory prison terms for gun crimes. ( confidence measure)
• toughening of the Youth Criminal Justice Act
• multiyear tax cuts for individuals and businesses, and a one percentage point cut in the GST.
• a Commons vote on the Afghan mission. But the Tories say they would prefer to remain in the war-torn country beyond 2009 - when Canada’s current mission expires.

The speech says Canada should build on its accomplishments and shift to accelerate the training of the Afghan army and police so that the Afghan government can defend its own sovereignty.

“This will not be completed by February 2009, but our government believes this objective should be achievable by 2011.”

• five broad priorities in the speech: strengthening Canada’s sovereignty and place in the world, building a stronger federation, providing economic leadership, tackling crime, and improving the environment.
• formal limits on the federal spending power for new shared-cost programs in areas controlled by the provinces.

The Canadian Press

real time speech: Governor General Michealle Jean looks tired, it was a 39 minute speech
The platform will be debated for six days.
Parti Quebecois leader Gilles Deceppe has told national news outlets this evening (before the pomp and circumstance was over) he will not support the government. For the vote, most Liberals are expected to play hookey. Stephane Dion will respond tomorrow.

- Arctic research station to study the environment, map Canadian seabed and increase security patrol

- more military veteran support and continued military rebuilding (the - Canada is back - soundbite)

- ask Parliament to make Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi an honourary Canadian citizen

- Parliamentary vote on Afghan mission past 2009 - training and rebuilding until 2011

- introduce legislation to limited federal spending power for new shared-cost programs in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdictions

- commission being set up to close off residential school abuse, include national apology

- visual identification of voters for federal elections

- copyright reform, senate reform, native and educational land reform

- multi-year tax cuts for individuals and businesses, and a one percentage point cut in the GST

- will pursue a global consensus on the environment (cannot meet Kyoto) pursing The Clean Air Act again

- food and product safety standards for imports

Full Text October 16, 2007 Speech from the Throne

There was some live blogging by  Progressive Bloggers, Liblogs, The Blogging Tories,  and SoCon Blogs (Social Conservatives) Nothing up yet at The Blogging Dippers (NDP)