Liberals Hanging On By A Thread (Godfather Paul Martin And Canada's Libranos Alert)

Worldnetdaily.com ^ | 05/14/05 | Ted Byfield

[goldstategop]

Canadian politics, always so dependably and historically dull, rose this week into the realm of high drama. It featured a government that refused to resign, though it had been defeated in a crucial parliamentary vote. It presented disclosures of base bribery in high places that sounded like they came straight out of "The Godfather." Finally, it produced the astonishing spectacle of a prime minister stalling for time on the possibility that two political opponents, stricken with cancer, will either die or collapse within the next seven days and thereby save his government.

All told, however, this gave the opposition one gleaming hope. Perhaps the conduct of Prime Minister Paul Martin has become so appalling that even Canadians are ready to vote him out of office. The latest polls showed the hope well founded.

Here is what happened:

The federal election last June diminished the 12-year-old Liberal government to minority status. Martin carried on, produced a budget with an enormous increase in spending and submitted it to the House earlier this year. But meanwhile, something had gone terribly wrong.

The annual auditor-general's report on federal spending showed unaccounted hundreds of millions of dollars being channeled into Montreal for advertising and promotion activity, ostensibly designed to counter the separatist movement in Quebec, but instead finding its way into Liberal Party coffers and the pockets of party workers.

Since all this had occurred in the era of his Liberal predecessor, Jean Chretien, Martin had confidently set up a judicial inquiry under Justice John Gomery to find out what had actually happened. Gomery's findings so shocked the public that Liberal support plummeted in the polls, giving the opposition good grounds to defeat the government immediately. Martin, now desperate, purchased the support of the socialist New Democratic Party by expanding his budget and spending even more hundreds of millions. This gave him enough seats in the House to provide a majority of perhaps one.

Then in a surprise move Tuesday the Conservatives, combining with the separatist Bloc Quebecois, added a clause to a routine committee report. The clause called upon the government to resign. Two Conservative members, both suffering from cancer and under chemotherapy treatment, were flown by air ambulance into Ottawa to cast their vitally important votes. When they rose to their feet, members on both sides of the House applauded their courage. It paid off. By a margin of 153 to 150, the House carried a resolution calling upon the government to resign.

Then Martin coolly announced that he had no intention of resigning. The resolution, he said, was purely procedural, not a measure of "confidence" in the government. He was, said the experts, technically correct. However, in such a circumstance, they added, custom absolutely requires the government to bring in a "confidence" motion at the next sitting of the House, i.e. Wednesday's, to demonstrate that it did indeed have the "confidence" of the Commons.

This, too, Martin refused to do. He would present such a motion next Thursday, he said, so that he could attend the planned arrival of Queen Elizabeth in Canada on a state visit the day before.

Jeers followed. The two stricken members, as Martin well knew, might not be able to attend, might even be dead. Moreover, two Liberal cabinet ministers, absent from Ottawa because they did not expect the vote, will be back in the House. So the government could win.

Meanwhile, the Gomery inquire labored on. On the same day the government lost the vote, the former federal Liberal campaign director in Quebec testified that when he took on the job, the party's Quebec chairman, ex-Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano, had told him not to interfere with funding. Somebody else was doing that.

The "somebody else" turned out to be Guiseppe "Joe" Morselli who headed an utterly unofficial funding organization set up to funnel money into Quebec. As campaign director, said the witness, he had interfered anyway, and Morselli "came right up close to me and put his finger right in my nose and said, 'From now on, it is war between you and I.' He was very frightened," he said. "I felt my own safety was directly threatened."

If Martin is defeated Thursday, the Gomery inquiry with its sordid disclosures will be carrying right on through the election campaign. Meanwhile, a poll published Wednesday asked who was the federal political leader most likely to tell a lie. For 67 percent of the respondents, it was Paul Martin.

[goldstategop]

O Canada! Mirror, mirror in the wall: who's the slipperiest liar of them all? Why Godfather Paul Martin and his Libranos. Who've given the country Ad-Scam, bribery, vote-buying, contempt for the law and trashing the general principle of parliamentary government in a last desperate gasp to remain in power. They've defied the will of the House and turned Canada into an international laughingstock. A June election can't come soon enough to clean house up in Ottawa.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Jaysun]

A June election can't come soon enough to clean house up in Ottawa.

Meanwhile, the liberals are doing what liberals do best - they're promising to give away the farm (not their own, mind you) in an effort to gain votes.

[Owl558]

"Then Martin coolly announced that he had no intention of resigning."

These people have a lot of nerve critisizing the 2000 US election. Maybe Martin will declare himself El Presedente for life. That or fill his suitcases with bullion and skip off to France.

[fanfan]

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[Heartofsong83]

Latest polls show the Fiberals are GOING DOWN!!!

[Truth29]

I presume you mean polls of likely voters if there is an election. Looking at the numbers for likely MP votes next week, it appears that it is razor thin and that the "cancer defense" mounted by Martin may work. If two cancer stricken conservatives cannot attend and two liberals attend who missed the last confidence vote, the result would be 152 liberals and 151 for the Conservatives and the Bloc. Correct?

[GMMAC]

You are correct - IF - all Members are present.

However, here are the WILD CARDS:

1. The despicable, now independent, Carolyn Parrish - will definitely vote with the Liberals even though they rightly turfed her from their Caucus.
2. David Kilgour now independent - once a Mulroney-era Conservative who went Liberal in 1990 and who finally left that Party mostly over Adscam last month - could go either way but well knows that voting with Martin will effectively sign his already filled-out political suicide note with his Alberta constituents.
3. Chuck Cadman former CPC MP from BC , re-elected as an independent in 2004 after losing his CPC nomination race - a personally popular but highly flaky red-Tory, he's changed his position on bringing down Martin at least half a dozen times but, like Kilgour, recognizes the road to political suicide when he sees it and so I'm betting this idiot votes with the CPC.
4. Ed Broadbent somewhat respected former NDP Leader and not running for re-election as an MP - has publicly claimed that in the interests of fairness he will abstain from voting if CPC's Stinson can't vote because of his cancer surgery. (take one off Martin's total!)
5. Speaker of The House, a Liberal, will definitely vote with Martin in the event of a tie.

HIGHLY CAUTIOUS PREDICTION:
LIBERALS WILL GO DOWN TO DEFEAT BY 1 OR 2 VOTES !!!

[battousai]

Despite all the indicators I will believe a Fiberanos loss when I see it.

Until that time we are still living in Canada and a majority of our socialist population will still vote liberal.

One can hope but I'm not holding my breath.

[battousai]

Should clarify: I mean a loss in the general election once it comes to that, not the upcoming motions.

[America's Resolve]

For 67 percent of the respondents, it was Paul Martin.

Owwwwwwwwww.Jeeze, thats gonna leave a mark!

[Truth29]

Thanks for the thorough analysis of the MP's still in play for next week's vote. I hope your prediction is correct, but never underestimate the duplicity and willingness of the left to do anything to win.

[goldstategop]

There would be "paired" voting. Some members from the NDP or the government would not cast votes out of courtesy for Opposition MPs who can't be present to cast votes. The Opposition is expected to carry the motion, triggering a new election next month.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)