A rchive Date
[ 20-06-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
|
[http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Ottawa/Douglas_Fisher/2004/06/20/506631.html
Certain ... disaster
When he ascended to the post of prime minister, it was widely assumed Paul Martin would enjoy a crushing victory in the next election - how did it all go wrong?
By Douglas Fisher - Sun Ottawa Bureau
Sun, June 20, 2004
With a week to go in the campaign, a conundrum bemuses a lot of us. Why did the certainty of a fourth straight Liberal romp break down? How could Paul Martin go from the surest bet in decades to win a majority mandate to a likely loser? Was this brewing disaster his own doing or bad luck?
Go back to Martin's ascension to the PMO before last Christmas. Oh, how highly he was rated at that moment - just before the storm broke over the Adscam revelations in Quebec. Among opinion-mongers like me there were no open hints the usual ruling party was about to bumble into a desperate electoral experience.
The certainty of uninterrupted Liberal rule had taken shape several years ago, in part because the land's conservatively minded were split into two hostile factions. Martin, hailed as master of deficits, a super finance minister, was preparing to ensure he followed Jean Chretien at the top.
It became clear in 2001 that Martin, both directing and being managed by Earnscliffe consultants, was winning control of riding and provincial executives of the Liberal Party plus the support of most of its MPs and many Chretien ministers. This had a shocking confirmation two summers ago when Chretien first dismissed Martin from his cabinet, then agreed he himself would depart the PMO within a score of months.
Bothered many
Such an understanding did bother many in a party famously given to unity and loyalty to the leader, particularly as open friction opened a fault line through the cabinet, the caucus and the party. Nonetheless, the agreement seemed to guarantee Martin would win what soon became a one-sided leadership tussle. Several able prospects backed off, sure they had no chance against him.
The "long goodbye" he'd set up left the shrewd Chretien ample time to flaunt his grip and set up his "legacy," exasperating a public tired of his style and fed up with his iron control of cabinet and caucus.
Through the next 17 months, freed from finance, Martin, pleasant and open to all, roamed Canada exposing his charm, superb organization and a noble (but vague) plan to erase Parliament's "democratic deficit" and free up the ideas and energies of plain MPs. At times he seemed a throwback to the heyday of Pierre Trudeau as a philosopher in politics. The son of a famous politician, he was heralded as a shoo-in for the grand prize, likely to run up, said some pundits, as many as 220 seats in his first mandate as PM.
And then Chretien's resignation came, several months earlier than first heralded. It proved useful for Chretien, untimely for Martin. Coming as it did just a fortnight before Christmas made an instant election call impractical - the way Trudeau had acted in 1968.
Worse, the resignation was shortly followed by the long-awaited release of the auditor general's report on the sponsorship scandal.
Martin, who'd known for weeks what was in it, chose to react boldly, agreeing the scandal must be examined at once by a House committee, a judicial inquiry, plus a separate search for moneys lost. Further, he wouldn't go to the people until details were known of those in government, both politicians and mandarins, who'd been in on the skulduggery.
Hindsight now suggests most everyone missed a growing, public impatience with the Liberal melodrama as it festered and swelled well before Adscam broke, and its critical path leading not just to Chretien but to his illustrious former minister of finance.
No heads rolled
No one in either the Martin or Chretien ministries, or among public service mandarins, had ever taken responsibility or suffered for such costly travesties as the gun registry, rejected by most of the provinces. No one but a head of one Crown corporation, fired for questioning a loan to a constituent of Chretien's, suffered for the patronage scandal of Shawinigate. No heads had ever rolled after a year or so of dodgy grants in the HRDC ministry headed by Jane Stewart.
It seems the final straw of public patience broke over Martin's first dilemma as PM - the antics of advertising agencies misusing the sponsorship programs to promote federalism in Quebec. How could a minister so high in rank and busy engaging support in Quebec for his leadership drive not know about such a scam there?
A further tinge of scandal shifted from Chretien to the new PM when he became suspect, first because of a conflict of interest through his forays when minister back into Canada Steamship Lines' affairs, then by his past use of Finance Department contracts to pay his Earnscliffe backers as they masterminded his leadership cakewalk.
Somewhere in the conundrum of Martin's drastic fall from public grace there must have been a moment when the same decision was reached by thousands. It likely began to firm up some time last year. Here, decided a multitude, is a political cipher, a guy without real content or astute priorities or much interesting to say and far lighter than first impressions had indicated.
Free fall
Well ... there are my suppositions for Martin's free fall. Perhaps some credit might go to Stephen Harper, the man leading the new Conservative Party. Perhaps more blame might simply be put on the accretion of arrogance and loss of public confidence in an institution a decade in office.
Letters to the editor should be sent to: oped@ott.sunpub.com Home Page
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|