by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
December 3, 2004
Since Paul Martin became the prime minister of Canada almost a year ago, he certainly has had trouble with his women. The alleged fairer sex have given Martin the lion’s share of the problems that he has encountered since formally taking over from Jean Chrétien last December 12.
Paul has had a long and happy marriage to his wife Sheila, which hasn’t done a thing to help him get along with other Sheilas. First there was Canada’s auditor General, Sheila Fraser, who issued her damning report on the adscam scandal. Saying that every rule in the book had been broken, Martin was put on the defensive as to why he, being the Minister of Finance at the time, had absolutely no idea that hundreds of thousands of dollars were funneled to Liberal friendly Quebec advertising agencies and other party faithful for doing little or no work. While talks abounded about political interference, Martin was forced into doing a "I see nothing, I know nothing" Sgt. Shultz imitation which was not an auspicious start to the assumption of the office that he had coveted for so long because it had been denied to daddy.
Then came the nomination meetings for the upcoming June elections and Martin refused to force Hamilton area MP Tony Valeri to run in a riding other than the one that long term MP and former Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps wanted to run in. Copps lost the nomination and then wrote a tell-all book about how Paul Martin really wasn’t a Liberal. according to Copps, if Martin had his way he would make Canadians to pay for medical services and force the country’s teenagers to give up their lives as gangbangers in Scarborough and go to Iraq where they would commit atrocities side by side with those despicable Yanks. Luckily for our Fearful Leader, this Sheila is well past her sell-by date and the only interesting facet of her book was her discovery, already known to the rest of us, of the rampant bullying, dirty tricks and corruption that is the Liberal Party of Canada.
Just when Paul managed to turn attention away from Sheila Fraser’s accusations and the country decided to pay no attention to Sheila Copps, up popped Carolyn "Damn americans — I hate those bastards" Parrish. Parrish, too was forced to fight a sitting member for the nomination, but the large number of america-haters in her riding allowed her to ride to victory. Carolyn then joined the long list of women who were less than enamoured with Paul Martin. Parrish put Martin on the defensive, playing him like a fine violin and laughing about what a weak and ineffectual leader he really is. She finally forced him into dumping her from the Liberal caucus by telling him and the "thugs" around him to go to hell. Whether she would still be a sitting Liberal had she not made Paul’s "thugs" mad, will be a matter that is best left to historians.
Just when Carolyn was being reined in, up popped Judy Sgro, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. It seems a Romanian stripper got to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. These humanitarian and compassionate grounds consisted of the fact that she and her husband were civic minded enough to work on the Minister’s re-election campaign, where they were able to make their pitch directly to Sgro’s ministerial staff. So every day in the House, poor Paul has to stand up and defend the actions of his Immigration Minister. at least this isn’t England. In the U.K., Home Secretary David Blunkett is under fire for fast tracking the immigration application of his mistress’s nanny. It’s nice to know that in Canada you don’t have to sleep with anyone to be able to jump the immigration queue — all you have to do is to stuff a couple of envelopes. Is this a great country or what?
There is no doubt Paul has his difficulties with the ladies. and from time to time some of them complain that there aren’t enough women in the caucus and the cabinet.
Can you blame him?