Posted on 12/04/2003 8:57:29 PM PST by Clive
OTTAWA (CP) - Paul Martin supporters are targeting some Liberal MPs in a bid to purge the party of any pockets of dissent against his leadership, insiders say.
Martin denied the charge Thursday. Party sources and MPs said numerous Liberals are being targeted in their home ridings by challengers vying for local nominations at pre-election meetings expected early next year.
The movement took stride after Martin's very first day as Liberal leader last month when he announced he would halt the current practice of protecting sitting MPs.
He said it is an attempt to make the process more democratic. Critics say it's a way to make room for favoured candidates and get rid of those who failed to support Martin in his lengthy leadership struggle with Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
"It's a co-ordinated and determined effort," said Ontario MP John Bryden, who feels he is under attack for remaining neutral in the leadership race.
"This is the Liberal establishment trying to make sure that absolute Martin loyalists are in place. . . . I haven't sufficiently passed the Martin loyalty test."
Bryden said he was told of a movement to push him out by the same local organizers who backed Martin's leadership bid.
One potential challenger even came forward and told of being solicited by pro-Martin organizers to take him out in the upcoming nomination meeting, Bryden said.
Martin denied there was program to purge some members of the party while saying the Liberals are looking for new candidates.
"Essentially we are a democratic party and a democratic party says you win your nomination. There's no doubt in my mind the vast majority of the members of Parliament who have worked very hard are going to be able to hold their seats, most of them uncontested," he said in Vancouver late Thursday.
"What we have said is obviously that there has to be a democratic opening for people and that they should be able to take it.
"We'd want to see new candidates, we want to see new people coming forth we want to see very much increased numbers of women candidates running in winable ridings."
With Martin moving swiftly to put his own stamp on the Liberal party, many Liberals are bracing for a top-to-bottom overhaul.
There has already been at least one firing at Liberal party headquarters in Ottawa, nearly every face in Chretien's 38-member cabinet is expected to change, and now MPs are fighting to keep their seats.
Sources say at least two dozen MPs claim they've been targeted by the Martin camp.
Chretien did not officially forbid challengers from targeting sitting MPs - it was merely understood that such things were not to be done.
One top electoral organizer said he remembers the tactic being used only once to help an outsider run for the Liberals in Ontario in 1997.
"Within the party, we kind of had a culture that you didn't challenge MPs unless you absolutely had to," said the organizer.
"By and large it was, 'If they're doing a good job, you leave them alone."'
Martin promises a different approach as part of his goal to re-energize the party and get MPs hustling to sell memberships with a spring election looming.
He has promised to make the party more democratic and says open nominations are one way of doing that.
But one top-level Quebec organizer said open nominations are a form of political vengeance cloaked as democratic reform.
"It's a manoeuvre to eliminate people," said the organizer, who asked not to be named.
"The current method is to simply send a clear message to certain people along the lines of, 'Sorry but we're not happy you're there. So we're putting someone against you.'
"This kind of thing plants seeds of doubt in people's minds: Do I stay or do I go on to other things?"
The list of such MPs is growing.
Sources in Ontario say they're already aware of challengers to: Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault, and MPs Charles Caccia, Paul Szabo, Beth Phinney, Paddy Torsney, Jean Augustine, Sarmite Bulte, Bonnie Brown, Marlene Catterall, Carolyn Parrish, Maria Minna, Karen Redman and Rose-Marie Ur of their riding nominations.
The vast majority - but not all - were Chretien loyalists.
Another Ontario MP, who asked not to be named, accused local Martin organizers of targeting her. She said they should leave her alone to focus on her job, not on fighting a nomination battle.
The process is also underway in other provinces, sources say, with challengers in Manitoba targeting Anita Neville, and others in B.C. seeking to take ridings held by Hedy Fry and Sophia Leung.
One Quebec organizer is compiling a special hit list after hearing reports of each new MP being challenged in the province.
That list includes Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, and MPs Clifford Lincoln, Carole-Marie Allard, Raymonde Folco and Yolande Thibeault.
When contacted, most MPs denied facing such challenges. But one admitted that several colleagues are now being distracted from other work in their ridings and Ottawa while organizing to save their hides.
MPs are now signing up new members so they can stack pre-election nomination meetings with their supporters, the MP said.
"Mr. Martin has got to bring a renewal to the party. I understand and I accept this," said the MP.
"(But) is this a purge, as such? I don't know. I really don't know."
Martin is a liberal but a fiscal conservative.
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