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Jack Layton — The Dance Has Begun

by Garth Pritchard, Canadafreepress.com
Friday, april 29, 2005

as Canadians, where have we seen this all before?

The last two elections come to mind. and the use of the Ottawa press corps to guarantee the Liberals run the country.

The media feeding frenzy has begun.

Now Paul Martin is ranting on television that Harper is in bed with the Separatists — what is he thinking?

Layton, the newly-discovered darling of the press is on air. He tells those on the east coast to look very carefully at what's happening. Harper's Conservatives, he said, will not honour the newly-signed oil agreements.

all obediently parroted by the nation's capital's press corps. No questions asked.

However, Harper has stated many times that his government would honour the oil agreements signed by the Liberals.

But here is Layton--on national television--making a point that he knows is wrong. The media know he's wrong, but ask no questions. as a result, the misrepresentation becomes the truth in the eyes of many Canadians. This practice is called fear-mongering.

This is a game that has been played out in far too many federal elections now. CBC, an agency of the Government of Canada — that's the Liberals' Government of Canada - has been totally biased. as for their polls, in the last federal election we watched Peter Mansbridge the day after the election, address his so-called ‘panel' and ask with practiced anguish - "How did the polls get it so wrong?" Their polls. The ones that he and CBC had been quoting for weeks.

Could it be that CBC knows full well that its total existence relies on the $1.4 billion of taxpayers' dollars guaranteed by Liberals? and of course, let's not forget the promise of $65 million more in this year's budget.

Within hours of the creation of the new dance team--Layton and Martin--the poll numbers are out. according to CBC and their polls, the vast majority of Canadians do not want an election. Nonsense!

Now we have the Separatist issue neatly dumped by the media and Martin into the Conservative camp--and have themselves saying it to prove it. The truth is, if Quebec leaves, it will be because of the Gomery Inquiry--the stealing of hundreds of millions of our dollars by Liberal flaks. all on the seemingly endless Liberal watch.

Reading Don Martin's column in today's Calgary Herald, I was amazed. Martin was whining about how difficult it was to reach the Layton camp. Then Don gushed that Layton actually phoned him back in a few hours. "Perhaps it was his (Layton's) latent sense of guilt at having given me a ‘D' grade in political science when he was a Ryerson University professor," Martin pants. The readership is still laughing. Of course, Layton phoned him back. Look what he got out of it:

The headline over the column reads "Just Call Him Prime Minister Jack Layton"--with the subheading "NDP boss seems more genuine than flip-flopping PM." Martin allowed himself to be used. I guess he deserved that ‘D' after all.

Journalists working within the asper papers have been subtly threatened in the past if they went too far in being anti-Liberal. In fact, an editor in the Ottawa Citizen quit over the issue. It's quite obvious where the rest of them stand, and they have been handing out "Get Well Paul" cards on the front pages of the asper newspapers for the last three days. The Liberals are fully aware that they have protection on this front. and the message that the Liberals are getting is, "Don't make any more huge mistakes and we'll give you time to heal." The NDP, by jumping in the middle of this, has given the media the excuse they need to let their Prime Minister get back on track.

The Globe and Mail handed out a "Congratulations, you've finally arrived" card to Layton. When was the last time you saw Jack's picture with a smile so big and run so prominently on the front page of a national newspaper?

The Globe and Mail proclaims: "Martin buys NDP support," and a subheading reads: "The deal: Layton wins $4.6 Billion in new spending and a rollback of most corporate tax cuts."

and of course, "54 percent in Quebec back sovereignty."

Let's look at this deal a little closer. as for foreign spending the Ottawa press corps travelled with the prime minister to Sri Lanka, where Prime Minister Martin spent 90 minutes on the ground--they hauled Layton along with them. The Ottawa press gallery was there to take pictures for the PMO. They never did talk to anybody on the ground: not the 200 Canadian soldiers or the Sri Lankans, for that matter.

There's the issue of where is the $425 million promised by the prime minister of Canada for the tsunami disaster? Just outside a Canadian DaRT medical clinic in Sri Lanka, with a camera in hand, I asked the one and only Jack Layton that very question. He turned and walked away. He didn't even bother to grunt or say hello. They all knew full well that none of the promised money had arrived. In particular the $40 Million that average Canadians gave from their pockets.

On the story of the $425 Million missing in tsunami area, I came home with footage and copies of Sri Lankan newspapers that were asking the same questions about where the promised money was. I gave the information to Don Martin. He put it in the pocket of his lookalike politician jacket (complete with silk scarf and Bay Guccis) never to be seen again.

I took it forward to other reporters in Ottawa, some of whom I've known for 30 years. I was left dumbfounded by the answers I received. "Garth, if I write this story, I will never work in this town again," said one. "Look, I have a pile of bricks, a wife and kids--one about to go to college. You know about the memos some of us have in our top drawer. Good luck on trying to tell the truth."

There's the issue of spending. For instance, $1-million given out--$32-million in bureaucracy. Where is the $780-million that was to be sent to afghanistan? and the all-time social funding: Canadian health care. How many elections have been run on this issue alone?

Somehow, the CBC and the Ottawa press gallery have managed to blame the Conservatives for all of these issues. are we missing something here? Or is Layton? all this has happened while the Liberals governed Canada. Not the Conservatives.

The office of the Prime Minister of Canada has been 'hi-jacked' from Canadians, with the complete support of the Ottawa media. Maurice Strong , senior advisor to Paul Martin and Koffi anan, has ties to PetroCanada, CIDa, Kyoto, Korea, the UN's Oil for Food program; then there are the connections to Power Corp., Bombardier--the corporate worth here is equal to the economies of entire countries on this planet.

Layton gets Martin to put $4.6-billion of our money into this insanity and expects to get more Canadians to vote for him. Does it not make sense for the NDP, the Conservatives and the Bloc to bring down the government and bring these very issues to the people of Canada?

The NDP will soon find out that when you dance with Paul Martin, he already has a partner: the Ottawa press corps.

Canada Free Press columnist Garth Prtitchard, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker living in alberta.

Previous and related Stories

What happened to our tsunami aid?

by Garth Pritchard,
Tuesday, april 26, 2005

Given the lack of interest in a federal election over the revelations from Judge Gomery's inquiry, one wonders how Canadians will react when they learn that Ottawa is sitting on more than $400 million in tsunami relief.

The outpouring of compassion following the Dec. 26, 2004 disaster was unprecedented in Canadian history. This is a compassionate country, and Canadians gave from their pockets, piggy banks, and bank accounts. The Canadian media told them not to send blankets or food--send money. and they did.

Scandal looming in promised $425 million for Sir Lanka tsunami victims that never arrived?

by Judi McLeod, Editor,
Wednesday, april 20, 2005

Even as the association of Canadian Maurice Strong with "Koreagate Man" Tungsun Park was coming under world limelight, Sri Lankans were starting to demand answers about where the $425 million promised by Canada to tsunami victims is.

Four months after the tsunami hit, Sri Lankans still don't have their money. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin rushed to the scene for a weeklong photo op. Generous Canadians donated record amounts of money on line.

Chairman of Paul Martin company that accepted Saddam's million worked for Power Corp.

by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
Monday, april 25, 2005

The former chairman of the Prime Minister Paul Martin-owned company that accepted $1 million from Saddam Hussein, worked with Martin at the Paul Desmarais-owned Power Corporation.

William Turner was chairman of Cordex Petroleums Inc., an oil and gas exploration and production company based in alberta with an american subsidiary in Denver, Colo.

Saddam invested one million dollars in Paul Martin-owned Cordex

by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
Friday, april 22, 2005

The Canadian company that Saddam Hussein invested a million dollars in belonged to the Prime Minister of Canada, canadafreepress.com has discovered.

Cordex Petroleum Inc., launched with Saddam's million by Prime Minister Paul Martin's mentor Maurice Strong's son Fred Strong, is listed among Martin's assets to the Federal Ethics committee on November 4, 2003.

PaTHETIC!

by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
Friday, april 22, 2005

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.



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