by Arthur Weinreb
June 25, 2004
As the federal election campaign draws to a close, it is apparent that most Canadians want change. Many are hesitant to vote for change because they have bought the Liberal Party argument that Stephen Harper is a right wing zealot with a hidden agenda.
The Liberals are adherents of Pierre Trudeau’s strong central government. Without the debating the merits of a strong federal presence in the lives of Canadians, the current government has grown too strong and too corrupt and lacks the will to change. When Paul Martin became prime minister last December 12, he had strong support and the winning of a 4th Liberal majority seemed to be a mere formality. The subsequent meteoric drop in Liberal Party support can be attributed to one factor and one factor only — Paul Martin Jr. is a weak and ineffectual leader.
Pierre Trudeau thought that he was smarter than anyone else and it was hard to argue that he wasn’t. Jean Chrétien, who assumed the top job 30 years after landing in English-speaking Ottawa as a unilingual Francophone, was proud of his political skills. Both men displayed arrogance, but it was an arrogance that had a basis in fact. Paul Martin lacks Trudeau’s intellect and Chrétien’s political savvy, but is arrogant simply because he is Paul Martin. He thinks that he deserves the position he now holds simply because that office had been so long denied to his father. He has no vision and worse, he shows no passion toward either this country or its people.
Paul Martin ran a negative campaign, not so much because he is a negative person but because he is bereft of new, positive ideas. He was at his worst when he accused Stephen Harper and his supporters of being "un-Canadian" because they deigned to see the issues differently from the way Martin saw them. Even in the United States, home to the so-called attack ads, candidates try hard not to label their opponents as unpatriotic. Martin’s statements in this regard were shameful.
During his brief time in office, Paul Martin has been disingenuous if not dishonest. After feigning anger at the Adscam controversy and promising to get to the bottom of it "come hell or high water" before calling an election, Martin shut down the parliamentary committee and dropped the writ. If Martin forms the next government, Canadians will never learn what really took place. When Paul Martin was asked questions on Adscam during the televised debates, he simply changed the subject if he decided he didn’t wish to answer. Some accountability! So much for eliminating the democratic deficit.
When Martin was Minister of Finance he eliminated the federal deficit on the backs of the provinces. Transfer payments, designed to provide at least minimal standards of medical care to Canadians regardless of where they live were gutted, resulting in amongst other things, longer waiting periods. Now, like the boy who kills his parents and then pleads for mercy because he’s an orphan, Martin rides in on his white horse announcing that he and only he is the only one who can save medicare. Sheer hypocrisy!
Paul Martin not only criticized Alberta Premier Ralph Klein for possibly intending to breach the Canada Health Act, but he fabricated some secret deal between Klein and Harper. Meanwhile he refuses to even acknowledge the existence of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, let alone criticize him for delisting medical services that Ontarians rely on. More hypocrisy!
Perhaps Martin’s greatest failing is that he is a petty and vindictive man. He refused to reach out to Chrétien supporters after the leadership race who had not only worked hard for the party but who could have prevented his freefall during this election campaign. Although we are no fans of Sheila Copps, she didn’t deserve the treatment that she got at the hands of the Martinites. Paul Martin not only detests his previous opponents, but is also attached at the hip to his Earnscliffe buddies, and refused to dump them when his campaign began to go south. As National Post columnist John Iveson so eloquently put it, he was determined to dance with the ones who brung him, even if he ended up waltzing out of office. The man shows extremely poor judgment.
Stephen Harper is somewhat of an unknown when it comes to governing. But his policies of lower income taxes in order to stimulate the economy should be given a chance. Despite attempts to portray the contrary, Harper has never even hinted at allowing two-tiered health care.
The Conservatives have a depth of talent with which to form a cabinet. And Conservatives such as Peter McKay, Belinda Stronach, and Tony Clement are hardly the right wing ideologues that the Liberals portray them to be.
If Paul Martin really does live his life to emulate his late father, he might want to consider that if Paul Martin Sr. had become Prime Minister and was running for another term, would he have sent C.D. Howe out to heckle the leader of the opposition? We all know the answer to that.
What this country really needs is a government led by someone who is honest and has integrity. Canadians deserve nothing less. Stephen Harper should form the next government.
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