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Howard Pawley's new book (con't)

Asked if he thinks Harper could go further, such as broaching issues like Medicare and abortion, Pawley said “I fear he will.”

He said Harper might not attack these issues head on.

“He’ll be careful.”

Instead he may use private MPs’ bills to bring about some changes.

And while even a large number of Conservatives support Medicare, Pawley said he “would be afraid there’d be a whittling away of it.”

As for the NDP as the Official Opposition after last week’s election, Pawley agreed party leader Jack Layton will have to “walk a fine line” between satisfying his large number of Quebec MPs and reinforcing the party’s support for federalism.

But he also said many Quebecers voted for the NDP because of its social democratic principles.

Pawley’s comments come in wake of his book, which recounts his years as premier of the western province between 1981 and 1988.

That was a tumultuous time in Manitoba politics when several major issues – such as public auto insurance and francophone rights – came to the fore.

And it was also the period when a major schism erupted between western Canada and the central government over the awarding of a maintenance contract for the then new CF-18 fighter jets.

Pawley said in each of these issues his government kept “true” to its principles “despite pressure to do otherwise.”

On auto insurance his government faced “powerful economic forces” in the insurance industry that spent a “tremendous amount of money” to try to defeat the legislation.

On francophone rights, his government sided with Franco-Manitobans who wanted statutes in the historically if unofficially bilingual province – as set out in the Manitoba Act – translated into French.

His government faced strong opposition across the province to do that.

Finally, the F-18 contract became an issue of western alienation, resulting in the formation of the right wing Reform Party, which eventually merged to become today’s Conservatives.

Recent documents obtained under freedom of information legislation backed up Pawley’s contention that then Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney falsely said the bidding process would be fair.

Manitoba’s Bristol Aerospace won the contract.

Then, Pawley said, Mulroney went “behind the scenes” and “made a deal” with Quebec’s Canadair Ltd., which got the work.

WindsorOntarioNews.com