NATIONAL POST
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Prime Minister Paul Martin responds to
questions concerning the sponsorship inquiry,
during Question Period in the House of Commons
in Ottawa, Wednesday. (CP/Tom Hanson)
Bruce Cheadle, Canadian Press
OTTAWA (CP) - An embattled prime minister will go over the heads of the national media and a raucous Commons and appeal directly to Canadians in a televised address on the sponsorship scandal Thursday night.
Paul Martin's extraordinary move follows a Conservative-engineered non-confidence motion Wednesday that could bring down the minority government as early as May 3 - sending voters back to the polls in early June.
And Martin's public entreaty comes amid renewed Liberal party infighting, another disastrous poll and a Parliament in procedural gridlock.
"We're clearly in an exceptional political circumstance," explained Scott Reid, Martin's communications director.
"While he will not be proposing that Parliament be dissolved or prorogued, he will be saying what he has done and what he believes should be done to address the current situation."
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe described it another way: "Absolute panic."
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will also speak to Canadians, following Martin's address, a senior Harper spokesman said later Wednesday. He said the location had not yet been decided.
Martin's move is similar to one Jean Chretien arranged just before Quebec's 1995 referendum. Martin is not asking for airtime as Chretien did, but is offering his statement to media.
It will include a "new commitment to Canadians," said an official in the Prime Minister's Office.
"It will not be an election call. It will not be prorogation. It will not be his resignation," said Marc Roy.
The surprise announcement crowned another brutal day for the minority Liberals.
At the Commons public accounts committee, the Tories used the February 2004 release of the auditor general's report on sponsorship as their premise to serve notice of a non-confidence motion. The motion cites "widespread corruption at the highest levels of government."
Procedural steps will delay a vote on the motion in the Commons until May 3.
The Conservatives insist the non-confidence measure is simply another tool to bring the Liberal minority to heel - not necessarily topple the government.
"We want to ensure we have the ability to enable the people of Canada to hold this government accountable," said Tory spokesman Geoff Norquay.
"We're essentially taking out insurance."
Another national poll - this one from Decima Research - confirmed Harper's Conservatives have opened a seven-point lead over the Liberals, who just three weeks ago topped the Tories by a similar margin.
The Decima poll taken over the weekend had Conservative support at 35 per cent, compared to 28 for the Liberals. New Democrats remained stalled at 18 per cent.
In the crucial battleground of Ontario, which has served as the federal Liberal's breadbasket since 1993, the Grits and Tories are in a dead heat, according to Decima CEO Bruce Anderson.
The poll was released to The Canadian Press shortly after Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty vowed Wednesday to remain a thorn in Martin's side even should the federal opposition force a spring election.
McGuinty has been complaining that Ontario sends too much money to the federal treasury - $23 billion more each year than it gets back - and is demanding a $5-billion break from Ottawa.
"We will continue to campaign either during a federal election, before a federal election, or after a federal election," McGuinty said in Toronto.
The series of pincers left Martin's government very little room to manouevre, prompting Thursday's televised address.
It's speculated the prime minister could promise Canadians he'll drop the election writ as soon as Justice John Gomery issues his inquiry report on the sponsorship scandal this November. Martin could also offer to put Liberal party funds in trust until any taint of corruption is cleared.
But it's unclear what any commitment might mean to Liberal short-term electoral prospects.
The McGuinty problem in Ontario dominated talk after the weekly Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday. Several, including cabinet minister Joe Fontana, said McGuinty kneecapped last year's election effort with an ill-timed Ontario tax hike and appears poised to do the same again.
"I won it last time without them," Toronto MP Jim Karygiannis snarled of his Ontario Liberal brethren.
"We won it in Ontario in spite of what was going on on a daily basis with the tax on health care."
Another Toronto-area MP, Oakville's Bonnie Brown, said she believes Ontario's fiscal complaint is the top issue with her constituents - more significant than allegations of corruption coming from Gomery's inquiry.
"If that's what they're worried about, and we solve it, then we're in good shape in Ontario," said Brown.
But her assessment of voter preoccupations was contradicted by other MPs, and by the Decima poll.
Some 52 per cent of respondents said they're now following the sponsorship inquiry closely, compared to just 34 per cent barely two weeks ago. The poll of more than 1,000 Canadians is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Another Ontario Liberal MP said Wednesday that the sponsorship investigation, while the right thing to do, could be the Liberals' downfall.
"(Martin) could presumably have buried the whole thing," said Toronto MP John McKay.
"But he chose not to and it may even cost him his prime ministership."
Chretien hasn't commented on the recent damaging sponsorship testimony, even as it spins closer and closer to him and polls show a slim majority of Canadians hold him personally responsible.
Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan refused to publicly call out Chretien, but came close.
"Obviously that would be up to Mr. Chretien to decide. I'm not going to comment on that," she said Wednesday.
"Those who are responsible know who they are. In a system in which you hope to retain the confidence of the public around its integrity, those who are responsible should step forward and take responsibility."
© The Canadian Press 2005
