Posted on 04/28/2005 10:17:15 AM PDT by Heartofsong83
SUSAN DELACOURT OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Paul Martin says he wouldn't mind fighting the next election campaign as the underdog.
In an interview with the Toronto Star yesterday, Martin says he is telling Liberals not to lose hope in the face of fading poll fortunes — that the party was actually in worse shape in the middle of last year's election campaign.
"This is very much a horse race," Martin said. "I don't mind going into an election, when it comes, as the underdog."
Though he wouldn't reveal what his internal party polling is telling him, Martin declared authoritatively: "We were in tougher shape in the middle of the last election than we are today. ... I can tell you, that's the way the polls worked out. We're in a horse race here."
Speaking at his Langevin Block office across from Parliament Hill, where he conducted a whole range of back-to-back media interviews yesterday, Martin offered sneak peeks into how he plans to fight an election when his government falls.
It's not an academic question: Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said yesterday that he's ready to provoke a collapse of the government. In many ways, Martin appears to be envisioning a replay of last year's campaign — or at least the last two weeks of it, when Liberals rebounded from almost-inevitable defeat to shaky survival, largely by becoming the underdog and portraying a Harper government as a threat to health care and Canadian social values.
The only differences this time, the Prime Minister signalled yesterday, is that education will replace health care as the big-ticket item and that Martin believes the differences between Liberals and Conservatives will be even more sharply defined.
"I can tell you in terms of the next election campaign, we've set out that areas like education are going to be very important to us," Martin said.
"It may well be (a replay), but it's being brought into even sharper focus. If the Conservatives vote against child care, that's an indication of their values. If the Conservatives vote against climate change, that's an indication of their values. If the Conservatives vote against a budget which is fiscally responsible and which essentially fulfills the government's objectives because in fact what the Conservatives want to do is to play partisan politics with the Bloc Québécois, that is the perspective of their objectives," he said.
Canadians know what they're getting with the Liberals, Martin said, because this year's budget laid it out in some detail. That budget, though, is in the midst of being adjusted as part of a new deal with the NDP.
"I mean our agenda is pretty clear. Canadians know exactly where we want to take the country and they know the fundamental differences between ourselves and Stephen Harper," Martin said.
Clearly buoyed by the NDP support, which came at the price of delaying some corporate tax cuts and investing more money in cities, education and the environment, Martin says he believes the Liberal-NDP pact helps focus the differences with the Tories even more.
"We said from the very beginning that we wanted Parliament to work and there can be no greater indication of Parliament working or not than whether the budget passes," he said. "The NDP indicated that they want Parliament to work."
Martin says, in effect, that the NDP is helping him make the case that two parties are engaged in constructive politics, while the Bloc and the Tories are on a more destructive bent.
"That's what's happened here. When we came into office, everybody said, all the parties, with the exception of the Bloc, said they wanted Parliament to work. The Bloc said they'd do everything to get in our way. And they've tried, they've done it. Now recently the Conservatives have joined with the Bloc. They've changed their minds and they've essentially said that working hand in hand with the Bloc to frustrate Parliament is the way they want to operate," he said.
Martin's day of media interviews yesterday was part of what's become a week-long blitz to regain some grip on a government perched to collapse ever since an outbreak of public fury over revelations from the Liberal sponsorship-scandal inquiry. Ushering journalists in and out of his office yesterday, Martin appeared relaxed and non-plussed. He was surprised by the suggestion that some Liberals are in despair these days. "You mean in terms of the next election?" he said, shaking his head.
Recent polls show the federal Liberals' support hovering between 25 to 30 per cent nationwide, with Tories in the 35-per-cent range. It was only the rare poll that put the Liberals below 30 per cent during last year's election, but Martin seemed adamant that things were much bleaker then than today.
His optimism may also be rooted in a slight trend, emerging in some of this week's polls, which indicate the Liberals may have bottomed out and be on a slight rebound.
Most commentators believe, however, it's still too early to tell whether Martin's recent attempts at damage control have boosted Liberal fortunes in any significant way.
Mr. Dithers cannot wrap himself in the flag like this!!! He is the key to Quebec separation!!! If he gets away with this (with the help of the MSM) we should try to force ourselves into statehood!
That is disturbing as they are trying to force their NDP-style agenda onto their readers...and cannot take criticism at all...although the Globe and Mail is pretty close to them nowadays in ideology, at least from a social perspective...
This "values" arguement won't work in Western Canada including Vancouver. At least in Vancouver they are socialists, but not anti "everything that seems American." Atlantic Canada doesn't count because they vote for who will bribe them the most. Toronto and the GTA is the target of this values arguement. Many, many immigrants in Toronto (nearing 50% of the population of Toronto) hate the US. Many were rejected by US Immigration. Many are socialists, such as many Eastern Europeans and many British Immigrants who "fled" the Thatcher Years.
One-Tier Health Care is primarily an Ontario concern.
I am afraid Martin did the math and knows he can win on the Anti-American platform.
Unfortunately, those 45 seats are the bedrock of the Fiberal support...
Harper has to tell the people of Canada that voting liberal=quebec separation. Of course he must do that DURING the election campaign.
Only in Ontario does this gain votes for the Liberals. The rest of Canada saw the deal as a sell out on the backs of the Canadians taxpayer.
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