Rebuffed Canada prime minister says needs majority

OTTAWA, May 16 (Reuters) A Canadian parliamentary committee rejected a key appointment by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper today, prompting him to say this pointed to the need for a majority government.

The three opposition parties, which outnumber the Conservatives in the House of Commons, voted against Harper's choice of former oil industry executive Gwyn Morgan to head a new commission to reform the government appointment process.

''What that tells us is we won't be able to clean up the process in this minority Parliament. We'll obviously need a majority government to do that in the future,'' said Harper, who defeated the then-governing Liberals on Jan. 23.

''That's obviously what we'll be taking to the people of Canada at the appropriate time.'' Morgan, the former chief executive of EnCana Corp had agreed to work for a dollar a year, with the mandate to take the politics out of appointments to government boards, agencies and commissions and to establish merit-based requirements.

But the opposition said his appointment itself was political in that he was openly pro-Conservative.

Morgan agreed he was a Conservative but said he had a reputation that spoke for itself.

REUTERS SK PM0247