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Conservative leader wants fall vote

Stephen Harper, the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, is calling on voters to oust the scandal-plagued Liberal government.

After winning a sweeping victory over Belinda Stronach and Tony Clement to lead the new party, Harper called on the Liberals to put off any plans for a spring federal election.

"I think there should be an election date in the fall, set well in advance, four years after the last one," Harper said. Under Canada's parliamentary system, the governing party sets the date for an election, no longer than every five years.

"I don't think the prime minister should be picking a date just whenever it suits him or whenever he gets good overnight polls," Harper said.

Paul Martin, who succeeded the retiring Prime Minister Jean Chretien in December, "owes the country an explanation" about the alleged misspending of millions of dollars in federal sponsorship money before the election date is set, he added.

Harper, 44, former head of the Canadian Alliance party, also acknowledged the new Conservative platform needs work and more time, with only about half of its 308 candidates nominated. The party is a merger of the Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties.

A strategy to thwart pharmaceutical companies opposed to the sale of lower-priced Canadian drugs to Americans would be to move parts of Internet pharmacies to the United States, a conference was told.

Officials of Internet mail-order companies met in Winnipeg to discuss ways of staying in business as some manufacturers are restricting sales to them. Pfizer Canada recently blacklisted wholesalers who supply Internet pharmacies.

It has become a huge business, with some critics saying it could cause drug shortages in Canada with uninsured Americans lured by lower Canadian regulated prices for prescription drugs.

"The industry will evolve and grow," said Mark Lazar, chief executive of Calgary's LePharmacy.com.

The companies can "walk across the border and acquire a small pharmacy and plug in 30,000 mail-order clients, and they'll be in business from the call center in Manitoba and shipping from North Dakota," he added.

Relations between Canada and the United States are in "excellent shape," says Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada. Speaking to the Canadian Society of New York, Cellucci gave an upbeat assessment of relations between the two countries and repeated his invitation for Canada to join in the proposed missile defense system for North America. Last year, he chided Canada for not backing the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He said relations have returned to normal.

Mitchell Sharp, Canada's elder statesman and former Cabinet minister, has died of cancer at age 92. Ten years ago, after a half-century of public service, the Winnipeg native became a personal adviser to then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien and kept the job until recently for pay of $1 a year.

The Ontario Legislature adjourned sittings for several days after the death of Liberal Dominic Agostino. First elected in 1995 in Hamilton East, Agostino, who was 43, died of cancer.

Canada's dollar is on the rise again, reaching 75.8 cents U.S. Friday while the U.S. greenback returned $1.3192 Canadian before bank exchange fees.

The key interest rate of the Bank of Canada is unchanged at 2.5 percent while the prime lending rate is 4.25 percent.

Canadian stock markets are lower, with Toronto's composite index at 8,512 and the Canadian Venture Exchange 1,859 points.

Lotto 6-49: (Wednesday) 5, 15, 19, 24, 26 and 46; bonus 43. (March 20) 9, 13, 21, 25, 38 and 41; bonus 33.

- Jim Fox may be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com