Two cheers.

Market forces will determine distribution of Boeing benefits, PM says

The Harper government has avoided a repeat of the 1986 CF-18 debacle by thwarting Public Works Minister Michael Fortier's efforts to increase Quebec's share of the economic benefits flowing from a $3.4-billion military purchase.

"This government and our ministers have no intention of interfering in the regional distribution of the contracts," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters yesterday afternoon.

Laying down the law, Mr. Harper said it is up to market forces to determine which companies would receive benefits flowing from the government's purchase of C-17 cargo aircraft from Boeing Co.

"It depends on the company that has the contract and its relations with other industry players," Mr. Harper said.

Points to Harper for reining in Fortier -- though why he was allowed to indulge his appetite for pork for so long, at such cost to the government's reputation, is a question, as is why the government exempted itself from the Agreement on Internal Trade, which was supposed to make such regional favouritism a thing of the past. And points as well to the ever-impressive Maxime Bernier, who is emerging as the free-market conscience of this government.

And yes, for those of you who were kind enough to point it out, it does rather take the sting out of my Friday column, written before the statement was issued. Though as I say in the piece, it's the whole domestic benefit test that should be tossed out. Paging Minister Bernier...