The other interesting element from Harper’s speech, which has been mostly overlooked by commentators to date, was his declaration of war against red tape. Take a look:

This report will emphasize the extent to which we are expediting approval processes – cutting so-called “red tape” – to ensure that stimulus spending, spending that is temporary and targeted hits our economy in a timely manner.

Let me just emphasize this:

We are cutting enormous amounts of red tape and we are doing it quickly.

[…]

That’s why, as I mentioned at the outset, in the 42 days since our action plan was
presented, we have taken extraordinary steps to cut red tape.

[…]

We are, as I’ve said, cutting bureaucratic red tape. And we need Parliament to cut its red tape too.

We cannot have the opposition in Parliament replacing bureaucratic red tape with political red tape.

This, in addition to six mentions of “bureaucratie” en francais.

Obviously, this is a bit of posturing on Harper’s part around the 3 billion dollar “slush fund” battle with Ignatieff. But, I also suspect that Harper’s zeal for cutting red tape has a bit to do with appeasing fiscal Conservatives who are upset at his free spending budget.

With that in mind, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see Harper and Flaherty coming back to this theme on several occasions in the coming months.