It comes across as impulsive, a throne speech inspired by the Prime Minister's best intentions to end child poverty, the erosion of health care, urban decay and global warming.

Even the thematic title of the speech - "The Canada We Want" - strikes an impetuous tone, as though someone is about to throw a temper tantrum if they don't get it.

The speech that should have been delivered by Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson is the one about the "Canada We Need."

And what this country needs from the federal government is a muscular commitment to fiscal discipline.

Mind you, token mention was made of controlled spending, balanced budgets, competitive taxes and a reduction of debt to GDP ratio.

Now more than ever, Canadians need Ottawa to commit all budgetary surpluses to debt reduction, whether or not GDP rises. The $39 billion spent on public debt costs this year is an obscene waste of tax dollars.

What Canada needs is the passage of federal balanced budget legislation. As surpluses fall to an estimated $4 billion, Ottawa should hasten to ensure the country never again retreats into debt financing. Besides, a balanced budget law would offer the Prime Minister a brilliant political exit and a respectable lasting legacy.

The speech runs at odds with itself when it tries to square "disciplined spending and competitive taxes" with a shopping cart of cuddly spending promises.

How much is that doggy in the window A national drug addiction strategy, doubling of foreign aid, reformed health care funding model, increases to the National Child Benefit, spending on cities and passage of Kyoto are but a few of throne speech spending commitments that come at a premium. The social programs once given will be next to impossible to strip away.

What Canada doesn't need is an expensive, expansionist and intrusive government that pays lip service to all causes.

Vacuous statements about ending child poverty should be substituted with real predictable targets. Raising the basic personal exemption instead would take thousands of low-income earners off the tax rolls without creating a whack of bureaucracy.

Sinking new dollars into cities is equally unnecessary considering the gold mine of federal gas taxes that should have been poured into concrete from the start. Ottawa should return to pavement at least half of the $500 million that British Columbia motorists contribute in federal excise taxes at the pumps each year. With road repair checked off, cities will have a fortune in property taxes at their disposable.

Patients need Ottawa to update the Canada Health Act to the 21st century to include experimentation in private sector delivery of health services. Quality of health care services isn't necessarily best served by wringing more money out of Canadians.

In the end, Chretien's advocacy agenda will be sacrificed on the altar of Kyoto if the treaty gets the parliamentary okay.

Kyoto will throw so many people out of work in the high paying energy and manufacturing sectors that Ottawa will feel compelled to cast a far wider social safety net than anything envisioned in this throne speech.