Last night Prime Minister Paul Martin gave up six minutes of his precious time to speak directly to the Canadian people.
Canadian prime ministers have requested air time to speak to the country about matters of national importance only on rare occasions. The last time this was done was 10 years ago when Jean Chrétien took to the airwaves to attempt to persuade Quebeckers to remain in Canada prior to the October 1995 referendum. Pierre Trudeau addressed Canadians back in 1970 when he implemented the War Measures act to counter the FLQ crisis.
Since Martin's office had asked for media time on Wednesday, speculation was rampant about what Martin would say. Various scenarios were set out that ran the gamut from calling an immediate election to proroguing Parliament to Martin announcing his resignation as Liberal leader and prime minister. Some, such as Conservative MP Jason Kenney, accurately predicted that the PM was going to use the time for blatant partisan political purposes.
Despite the fact that Paul Martin did his best to portray the sponsorship scandal as a Canadian crisis, it is no such thing. In replies to Martin's address, both Opposition Leader Stephen Harper and Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois correctly pointed out that sponsorship fiasco is not a Canadian scandal or a Quebec scandal — it is a Liberal Party scandal.
Martin did make an apology of sorts by saying that while Minister of Finance, "I am sorry that we weren't more vigilant — that I wasn't more vigilant". Despite this weak mea culpa, Martin continued to minimize the scandal, talking about how monies were "misdirected and misused". It's an unfortunate fact of life that governments are forever misdirecting and misusing the taxpayers' money. Governments spend millions buying luxurious Challenger jets when the money could better be spent buying more MRI machines. The sponsorship scandal isn't about "misdirecting" money. It is about fraud, corruption, kickbacks and money laundering. It is about using taxpayer money to pay Liberal supporters in Quebec for doing nothing other than supporting the Liberal Party of Canada. The theft and corruption of the Liberals is on a scale that would make an organized crime syndicate blush.
In a blatant attempt to hold on to power, Martin listed everything that he has done to remedy the situation since coming into office in December 2003. He set out how he created the Gomery Commission, fired alfonso Gagliano and ordered his government to sue 19 people and corporations to try and recover $40 million. as David Frum had previously written in the National Post, when Martin lists what he has done, he sounds exactly like the boy who murders both of his parents and then pleads for mercy because he is an orphan.
Towards the end of Martin's speech, he finally got to the crux of the matter. The Prime Minister announced that he would call an election within 30 days of the release of the final report of Justice Gomery and he urged Canadians to wait until after the report comes out until judging the Liberal Party. The whole purpose of Paul Martin speaking directly to Canadians was to hope that the gullible citizenry buy his argument that we have to wait until the Gomery Commission is completed before we can draw conclusions about the government's fitness for governing. Gomery is scheduled to finish hearing evidence in May and June and his final report is set to be released next December. Martin is hoping that after the taking of evidence is completed and the media is finished reporting daily "bombshells", Canadians will simply forget about the sponsorship scandal and pay little or no attention to the report when it is finally released.
Martin's argument that the work of the Gomery Commission must be completed before Canadians can pass judgment on his government is simply utter nonsense. We have heard enough to form the opinion that Paul Martin's Liberal government is too corrupt to remain in power. The decision that Canadians must make is far different than the mandate that Justice Gomery has. Canadians need not be concerned with exactly who did what or which of the parties involved in the scandal are civilly or criminally responsible. The voters are not judicial officers.
In a telling part of his address that was reminiscent of Richard Nixon's 1952 "Checkers" speech, Martin talked about how he practically lived in the Parliament Buildings and how his father was a cabinet minister in four Liberal governments.
Paul Martin's address to the Canadian people was nothing more than a desperate attempt by a desperate man to hold onto the power that he thinks is his right by virtue of his birth. He truly is pathetic.
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