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PARIS — While in London this week, Stephen Harper dined with hiscost-cutting soulmate, British Prime Minister David Cameron. On Thursday morning, he meets another European leader cut from avery different cloth. In Francois Hollande, Harper will find someone with opposing ideason how to best cure what ails Europe's sickly economy. The new president of France believes in spending and investment toencourage growth. He has promised to turn on the spending taps as away to solve Europe's crippling public debt crisis. That view is in stark contrast to Harper and Cameron's calls forEurope to stick to a strict austerity diet. So it seems likely Harper will stress to Hollande the need forfiscal restraint. Ahead of a meeting with business leaders Wednesday in London, theprime minister all but hinted as he would broach the subject thefollowing day at the Elysee Palace in Paris. "As you know, a lot of attention has been paid, and will continueto be paid in the days and weeks to come, over the situation inEurope," Harper said before his meeting. "But in Canada in the past couple of years, as the turmoil hascontinued in various parts of the world, we've tried to focus onwhat we can do to sustain growth in the Canadian economy over themid- and long-term. "We have fairly aggressive plans to maintain a strong fiscalposition, not just in the years to come but in the generation tofollow. We've taken aggressive fiscal consolidation measures overthe long-term." He said Canada has been focused on sustaining its own economicgrowth and taking an aggressive approach to keeping costs undercontrol. In keeping key interest rates steady on Wednesday, the EuropeanCentral Bank gave no indications that it would lower the rate nextmonth to stimulate a weakening eurozone economy, or approve morestimulus measures. Hollande's views on how to solve the debt crisis veer off fromthose held by some other European leaders, including Cameron andGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel. Hollande, the first Socialist leader of the country in 17 years,defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on a promise to renegotiateMerkel's pact enshrining public spending limits throughout theEuropean Union. Harper has preached austerity. In that message, he has found akindred spirit in Cameron. It's unclear if the two spoke at any length about Hollande or theEuropean debt crisis more generally during their dinner at 10Downing Street with their wives and New Zealand Prime Minister JohnKey and his wife. The British prime minister, who was elected in 2010, instituteddeep cuts to the public service after inheriting a deficit thatstood at 10 per cent of GDP. Harper's Conservative government has similarly taken an axe tofederal spending. One of the business leaders who met Harper echoed the primeminister's call for Europe to take swifter action to resolve itsdebt crisis. "Uncertainty is a killer for business; it means that investmentcan't move forward and you're never quite sure where the bottomis," said Robert Brant, president of the Canada-United KingdomChamber of Commerce and managing partner with Canadian law firmMcCarthy Tetrault. "When you're never quite sure where that bottom is, then it makesit very hard to plan anything. So a lot of business people arewaiting and hoping that whichever way things go, there's some sortof conclusion." Back in Canada, interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said Harper shouldnot lecture the Europeans about fiscal integration when he has notheld a meeting with all the provinces since he became primeminister. "This to me is unbelievable chutzpah on the part of the primeminister," Rae said. "The Europeans have had more meetings in a week than we've had insix years and he has the gall to tell the Europeans how they'resupposed to do business? It's outrageous. "Mr. Harper's pretending as if somehow he can present himself asthe model of how to run something. Well, if he was running Europe,the place would've fallen apart completely and entirely. He wouldrun it like Louis XIV.". We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Wire Guide Nozzle Manufacturer , China Coil Winding Nozzle for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Magnetic Wire Tensioner.
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