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Politically Incorrect

The PM loves PM

by Arthur Weinreb

August 4, 2003

Ever since the race for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada heated up with the announcement of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s long drawn out, agonizing retirement, the news has been filled with stories of how Chrétien is hampering his alleged sworn enemy, Paul Martin.

Every time that the PM says or does something that cements Canada’s position as a third world country wannabe, sympathy oozes for Paul Martin. Stories abound about how rough Chrétien is making it for his inevitable successor.

It sounds good; but it’s simply not true. Jean Chrétien is nothing if not a political master. Jean was honing his slickness skills when Slick Willie Clinton was a teeny bopper meeting John F. Kennedy at the White House. Intentionally or not, every move that Jean Chrétien has made has been in aid of entrenching the country as a Liberal-ruled one party state.

Whenever the Prime Minister pulled one of his famous anti-American stunts, from remaining silent when backbencher Carolyn Parrish went on national television and chuckled about calling Americans "bastards", to saying that George W. Bush couldn’t manage the U.S. economy as well as Da Boss could manage Canada’s, the pundits would wring their hands and bemoan the fact that Chrétien was making it so difficult for Paul the anointed. But by looking bad, the PM was making it easier for PM to look good--not a terribly difficult task for the man whos epitaph is likely to be his most famous statement--"da proof is da proof and when you have da good proof, it’s proven". The reality to all this is that when Martin ascends to the throne, he will be blessed with an extended honeymoon. All the new Prime Minister will have to do to gain the confidence of the Americans is to go to Washington and not put his foot in his mouth--something that Martin is capable of doing.

It must be remembered that any similarity between what the Chrétien government says and the truth is strictly coincidental. This is the government that gained power in 1993 with Mao’s, oops, I mean the Liberal’s little red book that promised to scrap the GST and the free trade agreement with the United States if elected. Now free trade is expanding, and federal bean counters are hard at work counting Ottawa’s take from the Rolling Stones concert that was held in Toronto last week. The concert was apparently to help health care and hospitality workers, but the federal government, as usual, will come out to be the big winner. So anything that is done or said regarding Chrétien and Martin can’t be taken at face value.

The leadership "race" was a farce from the beginning. Paul Martin maneuvered the support of riding associations by strictly controlling membership forms while Jean stood silently by. Everyone knew that John Manley couldn’t win and was just positioning himself for when he has what it takes to be Liberal leader (ie. when it becomes his turn). As for Sheila Copps, her candidacy does nothing other than benefit the future king. By having Sheila come out with her far left policies, it adds to the illusion that Paul Martin is really a "conservative". Canadians will be shocked when they finally figure out where Martin stands on the issues, but by then it will be too late. Paul Martin is at least semi-honest when he essentially says: " Don’t worry kiddies, I’ll tell you where I stand when I get the job".

And isn’t it odd that Paul Martin just happens to get an appointment with the United Nations, the organization that Chrétien and Copps look at in awe to come up with solutions for Canada’s problems. By having Martin preoccupied with the UN, it takes him away from Ottawa and the appearance of having two Prime Ministers at the same time. That move benefits both the PM and PM.

Even getting Paul Martin out of the cabinet in June 2002, whether he was fired or quit, ultimately benefited both Chrétien and Martin. It allowed Martin to have free reign to not only distance himself from the Chrétien government, but to avoid being part of cabinet solidarity.

There’s no rift between Chrétien and Martin. It’s a well orchestrated transition to strengthen the Natural Governing Party.

The king isn’t quite dead yet--but long live the king.