Posted on 11/30/2005 7:16:04 PM PST by SmithL
COTEAU-DU-LAC, Quebec/OTTAWA - Prime Minister Paul Martin tried to play the emotional national-unity card on the first full day of the Canadian election campaign on Wednesday, but a patronage scandal that dogged his Liberal government returned to haunt him.
The scandal -- in which some Liberal organizers in Quebec funneled government sponsorship money to pro-Liberal advertising firms and demanded kickbacks -- has boosted support for the separatist Bloc Quebecois in the French-speaking province at the expense of the Liberals.
Martin has tried to put the scandal behind him, and on Wednesday warned of the dangers of Quebec separation. He said it would be folly to break up the country at a time of intensifying global competition.
But shortly after Martin spoke, his Liberal predecessor as prime minister, Jean Chretien, went to court to challenge the findings of an official inquiry into the scandal on the grounds there was "a reasonable apprehension of bias" about the way the commission operated and the conclusions it drew.
The inquiry head, Judge John Gomery, cleared Martin of wrongdoing but said part of the blame lay with Chretien.
"These factual findings are erroneous, perverse, capricious and made without regard for the material before the commission," read Chretien's 33-page affidavit.
The Chretien affidavit again put Martin on the defensive over the issue. He repeated that he supports Gomery's conclusions and denied that when he was Chretien's finance minister he had ever told the prime minister there was no problem with the sponsorship program.
"He never talked to me about it, and so I never gave him information," he told an afternoon news conference.
Martin's 17-month-old minority government fell on Monday over the findings of the scandal inquiry.
Anger over the affair means the Bloc remains the most potent force in Quebec and will probably prevent either the Liberals or the official opposition Conservatives from winning a majority government in the January 23 election.
In the June 2004 national vote, the Bloc Quebecois won 54 of the 75 Quebec seats in the 308-member House of Commons and since then has increased in popularity.
Martin introduced astronaut Marc Garneau on Wednesday as a "star" candidate from Quebec. Garneau said that while he understood the anger of Quebecers, he would try to persuade them it was time to turn the page.
"The Liberal Party has taken a beating. Now it's time to move on," Garneau said.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper was also in Quebec at the launch of the 55-day campaign. The Conservatives have no seats and little popular support in Quebec but hope they can take advantage of voter anger at the Liberals.
Harper spokeswoman Carolyn Stewart-Olsen pointed out that, until the scandal, the Bloc had been in decline.
"We hold Martin and the Liberals responsible for the increase in Bloc support," she said.
In Quebec City, Harper unveiled a proposal to set up an arm's-length public prosecutor who would be able to go after governmental wrongdoing.
"No longer will the attorney general face the conflict of deciding matters involving his own cabinet colleagues or his own party," Harper said.
The Conservatives have no chance of winning the 155 seats needed to form a majority government unless they make major inroads in Quebec, which is seen as highly unlikely.
But, elsewhere, a switch of only 18 Liberal seats to their column could see them form a minority government, which would have to depend on support from other parties to stay in power.
The Liberals lead the Conservatives by five or six points in most polls though the most recent one had them tied. Analysts suggest they will likely win another minority government, but still fall well short of the level needed to forge a majority.
Bump and ping!
Screw Unity.
Take Canada back from the liberals and their French Canadian running dogs.
If Quebec tries to leave send in the Army.
The Bloc could pick up 10 or more Liberal seats in Quebec.
Nobody but the Bloc will pick up any seats in Quebec.
If the NDP take some Liberal seats in BC, and Conservatives can pick up a few seats in the Maritimes and out West, the Conservatives may eke out a minority government.
Of course, were the NDP to agree to go into government with the Liberals, the Conservatives would be out of power, unless the unthinkable happened and they went into coalition with the Bloc.
The big winners in all of this will be the Bloc Quebecois and the separatist movement.
Canada has an army?
Fully one third of our army are French.
Candian liberals are going about this all wrong. They need to raise taxes and increase the number of give away programs like they always do.
Oh, and don't forget to blame George Bush and the War in Iraq for everything.
"The Conservatives have no chance of winning the 155 seats needed to form a majority government unless they make major inroads in Quebec, which is seen as highly unlikely."
To me, it sounds like you'd be better off letting Quebec go its own way, and taking control of what's left.
they only have a few troops. thats why they freaked when that bomb blew up a few of them
Yes! Exactly! It would drain the most liberal and craziest part of Canada away. Of course, it'll become a France-like hellhole in twenty years, but in that time it'll keep sucking up whacky leftists from the rest of the country before it collapses under the weight of its insane policies. Everybody wins!
We can only hope. A Canada without Quebec would be a much, much, much better partner for the USA in the world.
Ah, the Unity Card. To be followed by the "Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are scary, scary evangelicals from the West" Card, to be played in Ontario shortly before the election.
You can't say the Liberals aren't predictable.
Pardon me?
"Fully one third of our army are French."
Yep.
And there is no willingness to actually try and fight to keep Quebec in if the Quebecois really want to go.
I keep toying, though, with the practical, cynical deal that the Conservatives and Bloc could strike.
Where do their interests coincide?
For starters, in nailing the Liberals to the wall for corruption, prosecuting them and their cronies and removing Liberals from Parliament and the civil service for crooked dealing. Across Canada, that will mean a loss of Liberal power and its replacement, in the patronage chain, with Conservatives. In Quebec, it will mean pitching the Liberals out the door and handing those jobs to the Bloc.
Another natural place for cooperation is Senate reform. The Liberals have had power for so long, that the Senate is stacked with cronyism. Any Senate reform, especially 3E reform, would carve away the Liberal's influence in the Upper House and cause it, to, to become a representative, democratic organization. This would be a whole new field of battle for Conservatives, and of course the Bloc would again sweep Quebec and further consolidate their power.
A third source of potential cooperation is on trade and currency relations with the US. The Liberals throve on fomenting dissent. Conservatives are much more pro-trade and pro-freer-trade. The Bloc, for their part, are the most enthusiastic supporters of all of common currency schemes and concomitant free trade. The motivations are quite different. Conservatives are pro-economic development. The Bloc think strategically: a Canada with US currency and open trade borders is a Canada far less dependent on Ottawa...reducing anxieties about the perils of separatism.
Now, there are two views of the Bloc. One is that they are rank opportunists, not REALLY committed, deep down, to Quebec independence and sovereignty, but instead willing to hold a gun to English Canada's head and extract as many economic concessions as they can get. The other is that they are actually committed to independence, and that they keep upping the demands for transfer payments with the intent of getting as much as they can get from the ROC, as well as alienating the ROC so much that it will not fight so hard when they move to go.
I think the truer read is the second view: the Bloc really want independence and their own nation.
Another Liberal minority government is about the best way to ensure that, because the Liberals, to keep Canada together at any cost, will keep up the massive transfer payments that alienate the West. Of course the Bloc will not respect them, and will continue to hammer their corruption. Separatist strength will grow and grow.
Under a Conservative minority government, the Bloc would have a great bogeyman to inflame their support.
But think the unthinkable: suppose the Conservatives offered the Bloc several choice portfolios, including culture, immigration and perhaps native affairs. Would the Bloc really refuse the full reins of power over the very things they covet? The danger would be that the Bloc might find itself transforming into a truly national party, and then wouldn't WANT to separate.
I'd put the percentage chances of a Bloc-Conservative government in the low teens, but not zero by any means.
It will be fascinating to see what happens.
Placemark.
I find it unimaginable. Its no more likely than a pairing with NDP.
What I cant understand is why the Conservatives are so weak in Ontario. Nothing short of 40 % unemployment can dislodge the Liberals, apparently.
The LAPorte Affair....I remember, in college at UNB at the time, could hear the troop transports flying overhead as they transitted to Qebec from Base Gagetown. All for a group of 12 little French Nationalists. Sick.
That is why the liberals must be turfed out of existence, and the Royal Canadian Highland Regiment returned to active duty.
They would not fail to act to ensure that Quebec stays in by virtue of military force. Thats why the Blackwatch was deactivated in the first place, and reorganized as a reserve regiment in Montreal.
THERE WILL BE NO CANADA until the liberals are beaten, downtroddon and ground into the gravel of Ungava Bay.
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