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From the Editor

Talk is cheap, Mr. President

Memo to George W:

Re: Mr. Martin comes to Washington

by Judi McLeod

april 26, 2004

With a federal election in the offing and now that he could really use the photo op, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is headed toward the White House. The Prime Minister, who succeeded to the Prime Minister’s Office by virtue of a Liberal convention rather than the polling booth will arrive in Washington without his imaginary friend, "Flat Mark".

Flat Mark is the cut-out paper doll, sent to the PMO in Ottawa by the Grade 4 students of Fenside Public School as part of a literacy and civics project. Flat Mark escorted Martin around Ottawa in the days leading up to the transition of government last December.

We don’t hear much of Flat Mark these days. Perhaps he’s hanging his paper head in the aftermath of the Liberal Government’s on-running sponsorship scandal.

But it’s not the days leading up to the transition of government last December that prompts this memo, Mr. President.

It’s Paul Martin’s conduct in the days following September 11, 2001 of which we want to remind you.

Martin’s predecessor Prime Minister Jean Chretien was criticized in the aftermath of 9/11 for not doing much to instill confidence among Canadians.

"He’s been holed up at 24 Sussex for most of the week and when he did emerge, he had little to say," anne Dawson wrote in the National Post on Sept. 16. "It appeared Chretien was chased from his official residence only after other world leaders and provincial premiers hit the airwaves to announce their plans of action and denounce in the strongest of terms the terrorists’ deeds."

But Mr. Chretien is long gone and it’s Paul Martin making the official state visit to america.

Like his predecessor, Martin was aWOL in the week of 9/11.

Wrote Dawson: "Finance Minister Paul Martin, who was nowhere to be seen last week, will also have some explaining to do. The best he could muster was a press release asserting that the world financial system would weather the literal meltdown of the globe’s economic nerve centre."

"Paul Martin is just fiddling while the World Trade Centre burns," piped in then Tory finance critic Scott Brison. It couldn’t have mattered too much to Brison, who has since abandoned his own party by crossing the floor to join up with the Martin-led Liberal party.

Many average Canadians do not share the wishy-washy Chretien-Martin style of showing support to americans.

In a national outpouring of sympathy for the loss of lives in the unforgettable 9/11 tragedy, more than 100,000 Canadians filed onto Parliament Hill to show solidarity with their heartbroken american neighbours. and there was very little they and the scores of Newfoundlanders who had opened their homes to stranded air passengers on the darkest of days could do when their politically correct Prime Minister banned the use of the word "God" in prayers.

Word has it that you and the vice president are going to be very busy testifying at the 911 Commission when Mr. Martin arrives in Washington.

Word has it, too, that Martin will announce substantial Canadian support for crucial rebuilding plans in Iraq. Spin-doctors are now scurrying to find the right words so that Martin won’t look too pro-american.

Some, even in this one-party state nation will ponder forever where was the Canadian support when allies joined america in Iraq.

Besides hanging back on the sidelines when troops were being deployed, Martin, like his lifelong mentor Maurice Strong, seems to prefer the UN to the U.S.

But as your father, the President probably already taught you, "Talk is cheap."

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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